So, as my username implies, I live in Minneapolis. However, I am a proud native Floridian and grew up in Coral Springs, the town next to Parkland.
Stoneman Douglas high school was our rival. Not anymore.
MSD was originally built because my high school, JP Taravella, along with the other school, Coral Springs HS, were both getting too big. Expansion was happening rapidly, and Parkland was turning from pastures to an explosion of civilization.
My mom had knee surgery two weeks ago, and I happened to be down here helping her through it when the massacre happened.
My Dad lives in Parkland. Over the Christmas holiday, I met Luke Hoyer and his parents at a party in the neighborhood. He was a super cool kid, and I remember we talked about the Miami Heat all night while he watched me drink Chianti and made fun of my teeth.
This tragedy has really hit home and really hit my family. Like all of you wise consumers of news, I tracked the previous school shootings with great interest and have been saddened by all of them. I was particularly hit by Sandy Hook. I couldn’t imagine such evil, and my Mom is an elementary educator in Broward County.. which led me to think of things one would rather not think of.
Today, almost a week after the shooting, I finally got up the gumption to go over to Stoneman Douglas. I stopped at the Publix on Coral Ridge, where they are selling bunches of 17 flowers.
The scene is incredible. As sad as I am, and as deeply hurt some of my cousins have been, I cannot imagine the overwhelming grief of the family of the victims, and the students who survived.
Seeing for myself firsthand the grief of teenagers walking in a daze, some not even fully processing what happened, and their parents desperately trying to help them through it has changed me profoundly. Seeing the overwhelming grief of a father crying and pounding a fence with crime scene tape still draped on the ground marking the site where his son spent his final moments. As closely as I followed other school shootings, the devastation of the survivors is more than I could ever imagine. It was almost unbearable to watch, but that didn’t matter, I wasn’t going through what they were going through so it was up to me to stand there and take it in.
And the community. My Dad’s neighbor on one side lost three good friends.. on the other, a girlfriend. Down the street, Luke Hoyer’s basketball hoop stands silently. My Dad doesn’t talk much these days, even when we’re at his favorite restaurant he’s not himself. Neither is his wife. Seeing how a tragedy like this devastates an entire community is beyond anything I ever thought when I followed other school shootings. Everyone is hurting. Coral Springs is hurting. South Florida is hurting.
Next time you hear a gun nut spout off on rights this and rights that, you tell them to get their ass to Parkland. Go and look up-close at what this does to families and communities that have to bear the burden of child massacre. Go sit in the bagel shop and hear the parents grieving with each other, see the students hugging and crying, and see with your own two eyes what a 19-year old with an AR-15 can do.
He continues to destroy after the bullets have stopped.
#ParklandStrong
