One man drove his vehicle into people attending a holiday parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin. No one was safe because he hit anyone in his way. Five people died and forty-eight are injured. That was evil. The thing is, as with most evil things, the good showing up vastly outnumbered the one doing harm.
This is what love does in response to evil.
As CBS 2’s Marie Saavedra reported, a candlelight vigil for the victims was held way late Monday at Cutler Park in Waukesha.
“So often, we focus on the perpetrator. So often, we focus on the evil. And when we do that, we completely miss all the people that are helping,” Mayor Reilly said at the vigil. “Waukesha Strong is a good way to put it. We rose to the occasion.”
Waukesha is a close-knit community where it is hard to find anyone not dealing with some kind of grief – be it from the loss of a loved one, fear of the long road of healing ahead, or mourning how quickly the innocence of a holiday parade can be shattered.
CBS News Chicago
More strangers reacted out of love.
In an instant, she and her partner both dropped everything and ran – Janke, with her two sons into the realty building to take shelter, and Frievalt, who has a nursing background, to the victims she saw strewn across the street.
Along with dozens of high school students, Janke said the realty building employees acted quickly to shelter them from the violence and chaos ensuing outside.
Businesses, churches and other buildings all down Waukesha’s main strip did the same, taking in parade-goers fleeing the scene.
According to social media posts from parade-goers, the Waukesha Public Library took in kids and adults, offering water and books for kids to read to distract them. Evangelical and Reform Church provided food and gave children toys to play with from their nursery while families hid in their building. Various bars and restaurants, such as Boscoe’s Social Club, sheltered kids in the basement to protect them from seeing the bodies littering the streets.
“I do think the community really rallied together,” Janke said. “I know last night I said, ‘I’m never going to a parade along as long as I live again,’ at this point I don’t know if that’s true. But it’s amazing how quickly the community came together.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Maybe that is the most important thing to remember when the event that caused PTSD to hit you? Think about how the power of the event itself consumes your thoughts. For most people, their event involved someone doing something that harmed you, either on purpose, or accidentally. Sometimes it involves the actions of a stranger. It means you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes it involves someone you know. Either way, it can, and often does, haunt you.
Then think about all the others who came to help you after “it” happened. Chances are, the ones coming to help you were a lot more than the ones trying to harm you. The problem is, we tend to focus more on them, wondering why they did it, instead of on those who came to help and never wondering why they helped you. The one hurting you, didn’t care about you but the ones who helped cared about you without even knowing you.
The thing I think all of us should take away from the response after the evil act of the man doing what he did is, all the people who rushed to help those injured and comfort the families of those who lost someone they loved. The people who showed up for the candlelight vigil to show love for all those who suffered, without thinking about themselves. All they thought about were the people needing comfort and prayers of their community.
Sure evil showed up in one man, but loved showed up by the hundreds, as it always does. Earthly angels were already there.
