LITTLE ROCK — “What can you possibly say when 20 kids are gunned down as they learn their ABCs in elementary school? And six of their teachers. Those of us in Arkansas know something about what it’s like to stand there aghast, tears streaming, hands-on-head. And now it’s happened again, this time in Everyplace, U.S.A., also known as Newtown, Connecticut.”
—Editorial, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, yesterday
WHAT can you say? What can you do? How ease the pain, even make the world a little better despite it all? Thankfully, there are people out there who know how to do just that at a time like this. And they don’t just know how to do it, they do it.
The story was by our own Kenneth Heard. The dateline: JONESBORO. The one in Arkansas.
If you live in Arkansas, you’ll know Jonesboro for more than one reason. Arkansas State University. The Mississippi flyway. Or you make it your home.
But if you live outside Arkansas, you may know Jonesboro for only one reason: the shooting.
It happened in 1998. Two disturbed kids with stolen rifles shot up a school. They killed and wounded students and teachers. It was Columbine before Columbine, and shook the country.
The survivors in Jonesboro remember. How could they forget? And they don’t turn away when another massacre at another school makes the news. Instead, they act.
There’s nothing to be done about what happened in Newtown, Conn., no matter how much we want to turn time back. But there are things that can be done for the living. Especially the children. And so Jonesboro held a stuffed toy drive. Thousands of stuffed animals were bought, donated and collected. And shipped to Connecticut last week.
“We were getting animals from all over the planet and notes that they were praying for us,” said Meagan Cremeens, who was a fourth grader on March 24, 1998, the day the shots were fired in Jonesboro.
“It’s a small gesture of love,” said Pam Herring, the mother of Paige Ann Herring, who was killed in 1998. “It’s one thing we learned how to do—we’re passing our love on to Connecticut.”
Which was the theme during the stuffed animal drive.
“We hug each animal before it goes,” said stuffed-animal hugger Patti Clark. “We want [the kids] to know these animals are loved, and we’re passing the love on to them.”
These survivors in Jonesboro still remember that stuffed animals gave them a sense of security after the shootings. And they want to pass that feeling on.
No, sometimes people don’t know what to say. But these folks in Jonesboro know what to do.
Editorial, Pages 18 on 12/22/2012