mindy-corporonI grew up in a small town in Oklahoma. Before turning 22 and moving to Overland Park, KS, my education and way of life included a variety of topics but none of them were religious education beyond Christianity. My first introduction to Judaism was when I went to work at Kidder, Peabody with Richard Boyer. Although Rich’s faith is Christianity, he had many friends and clients who were Jewish.

Different holidays, times of worship and coming of age parties were all new to me as I entered a more diverse culture in the KC metropolitan area. Len and I took our boys to the Jewish Community Center for swimming lessons and attended performances at the White Theatre more times than I can count. We felt safe with our Jewish friends and welcome at all Jewish sponsored events. I never once felt or understood the underlying hate that had been and was still being directed to Jews. I never truly knew everything that it meant to be Jewish. I felt it on Sunday, April 13, 2014.

Love from the entire Jewish community and our community as a whole was poured on our families from the beginning of our tragedy, which began at 1 pm that Sunday. Arms wrapped around our families and people cried with us as we began to realize the enormity of the shooting. We were not in Israel. We were not in a synagogue in Jerusalem or Bethlehem. We were in Overland Park and the hate found us. We were the wrong people to find. We will not stand silently and accept the ignorance and the evil among us.

Therefore, when my family was asked if Reat and Dad could be honored at the Anti-Defamation League’s ADL In Concert Against Hate held in Washington, D.C., we humbly agreed. The first connection was actually through our “Popeye and Reat’s Something Good” page on Facebook. Once I understood the scale of the request, I made a call and found David Friedman of the DC – ADL. He was quite engaging, knowledgeable about our tragedy and more than welcoming to, “please, let the ADL honor Reat and Dad.”

Len, Lukas and I toured Washington, D.C. a few days ahead of the Concert, which was held on October 27. We spent our time visiting a handful of national monuments, taking a sight-seeing trolley tour (which we highly recommend) and eating at top 10 restaurants in the area. Even though our tours included The White House and the United States Capitol, we would all three tell you that our most memorable time was at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Lukas is 12 and in 7th grade and we are not Jewish; he had not yet been introduced to the Holocaust. As we made our way past the exhibits, video displays and the shoes, Lukas came to the realization that his brother and grandfather were killed for the same reason these millions of people were killed. It was overwhelming to know that the hate that took their lives took lives from us, too.

On October 25, we met Jacqueline Murekatete and Billy Mills just before an ADL dinner was to be held. Mr. Mills is an Olympic athlete who achieved this goal despite the racism directed at him during his formative and college years. He felt hate as a young man and persevered. Ms. Murekatete is a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide. She was nine years old when her Tutsi family was murdered by Hutu tribe members. Her story, in particular, struck a chord with us. She survived and so could we. We became fast friends and talked openly of the tragedies and heartache that brought us together. We vowed to stay in touch and have done so already. There are more survivors, good Samaritans, honest and hardworking people than there are bad and evil people. We just have to be louder and stronger than the evil doers.

The ADL In Concert Against Hate was held at the Kennedy Center, presented by two well-known celebrities and performed by the Washington D.C. Symphony. The concert was more than amazing, and afterwards many, many people offered their condolences. They embraced our loss, asked to pray with us, and offered sad smiles so we would feel from them that there is more love than loss.

As with many events in our lives, it will take years to know the full impact this event and the trip to Washington, D.C. had on Lukas. I know the impact of the shooting will never be over. It is far more reaching than I could have expected and has helped us realize, now more than ever, that faith always wins.

 

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