We say we’ll never forget. Indeed, those of us who were here will always remember the loss of six law enforcement officers in Pierce and King counties between Halloween and Dec. 28, 2009.
We’ll feel it as an involuntary memory when we drive past a Forza coffee shop. We’ll feel it as outsized anger when we hear about a “Christian” militia planning to assassinate police officers.
Now Safe Streets is coordinating an effort to make the memories more constructive, and to give each of us a say in how the events go down in local history.
Connie Rickman, a former Tacoma School Board member and a National Night Out volunteer with Safe Streets, believes that words change lives. She believes that when young people take the opportunity to help their community, they grow into productive adults.
That’s why she invited people from law enforcement, schools, service groups and Forza Coffee Co. to find a way to remember the fallen officers and give kids another way to contribute.
There are important memorial efforts going on now. Crime Stoppers is taking all the notes and letters received after the shootings and compiling them into a book. People are discussing monuments. And Forza and its patrons have raised funds for fallen officers’ families.
But this effort would be accessible to everyone, all the time, as a Web site.
Meeting at Tacoma police headquarters, the group honed a mission statement: “To appropriately document the community’s response and grief to tragic events, to support hope, healing and health as a catalyst to build a stronger community.”
They brainstormed a name: Blue Light Coalition.
Donnelle Vance, owner of Webb Grafix Design Solutions, used her cell phone to snag the domain name, www.bluelightcoalition.org.
The first phase of it is up. It includes a basic explanation of the coalition’s aims and a way to contact Vance.
She’s hoping readers will be willing to share photos of the community’s response to the shootings. Thousands of people lined streets, attended memorials and saluted the officers. They outnumbered evil 10,000 to 1, at the very least.
The team is hoping readers will share their stories on the page and that historians will find a way to archive them.
Mike Wilson of Safe Streets envisions a current list of volunteer opportunities.
As the Web site develops, the students at Lakewood’s Harrison Prep Computer Clubhouse will help maintain it, said program director Kurt Sample. That will sharpen their computer skills and suck them in to the wonderful world of volunteerism.
Anyone who remembers some of the anonymous, poisonous comments that popped up on media blogs might cringe at the thought of exposing young people to that venom. Organizers aim for that not to happen on bluelightcoalition.org. The Web site will have standards of accountability. Every submission will be monitored before it’s posted.
Courtney Marshall, manager of the Forza coffee shop where four Lakewood officers were killed, has offered to host a community gathering there on National Night Out, Aug. 3.
She, Wilson and Lakewood police officer John Unfred have been working on a coffee cup sleeve that could be sold as a fundraiser.
They’re mulling the idea of selling blue lights. Shining on front porches, the lights would revive an old Lakewood tradition, stand as a symbol of solidarity and serve as a fundraiser.
Fundraising is tricky, Unfred said. He knows some money raised after the massacre did not get to its intended cause. That scorched experience is a valuable asset as this community group works out how it will sustain itself.
It’s an inclusive effort. If you’d like to join law enforcement officers, educators, entrepreneurs and activists, there’s room at the table. Call Wilson at 253-272-6824.
We heal first by understanding the events that damaged us.
We heal best by doing everything in our power to make sure they never happen again.
Blue Light Coalition is part of the therapy we still need.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
