Riverhead residents joined together again this evening for a third time in a service remembering the victims of the June 12 Orlando mass shooting.
This evening’s service, attended by about 25 people, was convened by the Riverhead Anti-Bias Task force on the lawn outside Riverhead Town Hall.
“The Anti-Bias Task Force members are ambassadors for the Town of Riverhead. We won’t stand for discrimination, hatred and bigotry and that’s what this was,” said ABTF chairperson Connie Lassandro.
Supervisor Sean Walter and council members Tim Hubbard and James Wooten attended and spoke to the group assembled on the lawn.
“There’s not much you can say to adequately express yourself in a circumstance like this,” Walter said. “It is my solemn prayer that the peace of Jesus Christ that surpasses all understanding be with all the families,” he said. “The only way to get through something like this is to have a deeper relationship with God,” he said. “It we let anger control us, then we will be bitter for the rest of our lives.”
Hubbard expressed concern that people are getting “numb” to these kinds of tragedies and begin to “accept it as the ways things are.” Not so, the councilman said.
Wooten says we should pray so we can bring comfort to those who suffered such terrible losses. “I can’t imagine it,” he said.
“Obviously the loss of lives is tragic,” Lassandro said. “But we must also remember the wounded. They are going to have to live with this the rest of their lives. Our prayers should be with them, prayers that they can heal and rise above this and continue on in life.”
Nina Keller of South Jamesport, one of the speakers at a previous vigil in Grangebel Park Friday evening, told the group that as a gay woman, it’s important to her to feel the support of other residents.
“It means so much for people to come out and say, ‘I stand with you. I stand with your community’,” Keller said.
“I just hope we never have to go to another one of these,” said Laurel Sisson of Riverhead. “You never know — it could be any one of us at any time when people have access to that sort of killing machine,” she said, referring to the semi-automatic rifle used by the shooter.
“We come together with many people around the nation … in solidarity with the Orlando community,” the Rev. Enrique Lebron, pastor at the United Methodist Church of Riverhead said. “Help us to work hard against discrimination, hate and violence against any person and any group in our community,” he prayed. “Help us be strong for those who don’t have voices and to comfort those who are mourning and suffering the consequence of the violence. Teach us to respond in healthy ways and help us to continue to pray together — not just in times like this.”
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