This Reader’s Opinion by Mayors Mike Ryan and Skip Campbell appeared the Sun Sentinel, February 18th, 2018.
Twenty children and six teachers were massacred in an elementary school. Prayers rose to the heavens. Tears flooded our souls. Words inspired hope of change and action. It was not the first or a new type of massacre. It just seemed different.
Sandy Hook was our moment. But, we, as a nation, failed those angels from Sandy Hook, and all the others who died in preventable gun violence since. We, as a nation, failed the seventeen angels of Parkland. At the vigil last Thursday, 17 life-size angels stood tall on the stage and before a nation as physical images of innocence and love. What most did not know was those very angels had physically stood in Sunrise when the community held a profoundly emotional vigil immediately after the Sandy Hook massacre. How many more times will those physical angels be asked to comfort and act as a symbol of love for massacred children and teachers?