Janija Samone McGown's funeral is today.
She was the beautiful 14-year-old girl whose life was violently ended on the evening of June 7.
Fourteen years old. That would make her in about the ninth grade. Did you see her photograph in the obituary? Did it make you want to cry?
The details of her death are not something we will recount on this day. Her family and loved ones and friends, we can only guess, have re-lived these moments over and over, and there is no need to replay that mental video again.
When older people are killed in such ways, in some cases, at least, they have put themselves in dangerous places and, at the wrong time, they find trouble.
But the young are something different. They are still forming. Their brains are maturing. They don't have the ability to weigh risk. They are impulsive. They are easily manipulated. In short, we can't imagine any circumstance in which someone at the tender age of 14 would deserve such an end.
The loss of such an individual is staggering. In a few years, she would have graduated from high school. Maybe gotten a scholarship to college. Gotten married. Had children. Brought them up with love and understanding and attention. Taken care of her parents or aunts or grandparents as they aged. Worked hard. Studied hard. Been happy with the person she turned out to be. Laughed. Hugged. Had close friends she supported. Loved life.
All of that was possible on the morning of June 7. But by the morning of June 8, all was lost.
The world is a hard place. We are ready for the outrage that would push back against such hardness here in Pine Bluff. We are ready for there to be more June 7 mornings and zero June 8 mornings.
We are a community looking for answers. We must find them. Our babies do not need to die this way. Our world does not need to have chapter after chapter of people lost to this hard world. Every mother and father needs to hold their children close and tell them how much they love them. And then hold them some more and put them in the palm of their hand and protect them. Who is safe if it's not a youngster, a young woman moving across the vast landscape of summer, enjoying life?
Janija's obituary is short, but her horizon should have been far, far away. We offer thoughts and prayers for the family and for our community. We are better than this. We must make that manifest or there is no hope for us.