By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

In the wake of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas, a group of Central New York peace activists called the Jubilee Initiative held a prayer vigil in a clearing off the West Shore Trail on Onondaga Lake on Monday, Aug. 5. About a dozen people gathered at the Peacemaker’s Sanctuary in Geddes to remember the victims of the Aug. 3 shooting in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and the Aug. 4 shooting at a bar in Dayton, Ohio.

“This is such a beautiful spot. It’s hard to think we’re here because of such a tragedy,” said David Pasinski, a Fayetteville resident who served as senior chaplain at Hospice of CNY for 15 years.

Pasinski said he was particularly stricken by the El Paso shooting because he had traveled there about six weeks prior. The shooter, a 21-year-old white male named Patrick Wood Crusius, killed 22 people and injured 24. Crusius, who has been charged with capital murder and may face hate crime and federal firearms charges, is believed to have posted a 2,300-word manifesto railing against Hispanic and Latino immigrants to 8chan, an online message board, minutes before he opened fire.

In Ohio, police killed 24-year-old gunman Connor Stephen Betts just 32 seconds after he shot and killed nine people, including his own sibling. Twenty-seven people were injured, 14 of them by gunfire.
Pasinski reflected on the familiar phrase “thoughts and prayers” that is often extended after such a tragedy.

“Both of those are such important words but they are so misused by so many people, politicians, even myself,” Pasinski said. “A prayer … is always valuable to life up those who have died and their loved ones, but unless we are willing to put ‘thoughts and prayers’ into commitment, they are hollow.”

Father Fred Daley, pastor of All Saints Parish of Syracuse, paraphrased the Rev. Al Sharpton’s invocation of James 2:26: “Faith without works is dead.”

“We’ve done enough praying. Faith without action is death,” Daley said.

Daley said President Donald Trump and other right-wing thinkers have scapegoated Muslims and immigrants. The manifesto believed to have been written by the El Paso shooter applauds the two mosque shootings that took place in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March of this year.

“People of goodwill [and] certain religious leaders need to call our president to repentance for his words of hatred and stoking fear and racism,” Daley said. “Sometimes religious leaders tend to be too safe. We don’t want to rock the boat.”

Jubilee Initiative member Tim Hart called the prayer vigil “a circle of love and light.”

“I’m here because I want to see healing in our country,” Hart said.

Hart said people should work to overcome their differences and get to know one another, thereby “planting the seeds of love and tolerance.” He cited fellow vigil attendee Ralph Singh, who co-founded the Sikh-based Gobind Sadan USA in Palermo, as an example of that love and tolerance. In November 2001, a group of teenagers set fire to the Gobind Sadan site because they mistakenly believed Sikhs were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks orchestrated by the militant Islamist terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.

“When Ralph’s temple was burned down just north of Central Square, I couldn’t believe the forgiveness he showed toward these teenagers that thought he was part of [Osama] bin Laden’s crew,” Hart said.

“Each one of us is filled with the same light that radiates throughout the cosmos,” Singh said. “How is that we have allowed hatred and fear and ignorance to block that light?”

Singh urged attendees of the vigil to “love everyone as your neighbor and forgive everyone as your enemy.”

“We triumph over fear if we let it stand within the light. Hatred is something which is never extinguished but is diminished when it is never given the light of day,” Singh added.

In addition to advocating love for others, Hart shared a list of action items he would like to see from policymakers: increased funding for mental health services in schools and communities, the allocation of funds to intelligence agencies to prevent domestic violence and domestic terrorism, education that includes exposure to and empathy for other cultures, and gun control measures such as universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons and “red flag” laws, which would allow courts to confiscate firearms from people who friends or relatives say could be a danger.

Congressman John Katko released a statement Aug. 5 reiterating the need for Congress to pass the Protecting our Communities and Rights Act of 2018, a red flag law he introduced last year.

“I am devastated by the senseless violence that occurred in El Paso and Dayton this past weekend. These hateful acts have no place in our society, and my heart is with the families of the victims and with these communities during this incredibly difficult time,” Katko said. “There is no singular solution to stopping this type of violence — but we must act. That means working across the aisle to enact commonsense reforms to keep firearms out of the hands of those who should not have them. I firmly believe the bipartisan red flag legislation that I’ve introduced and championed is a starting point for the dialogue that must take place across our country.”

In a speech Aug. 5 at the White House, Trump condemned the recent shootings as “barbaric” and recommended that Congress pass a red flag law.

“I was glad to hear the president voice support for this type of legislation today. Action is long overdue. I urge the White House and both houses of Congress to look carefully at this bipartisan measure so that we can prevent these heinous acts of violence,” Katko said of the president’s response.

Any congressional action will have to wait until next month, however. Both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are in recess until Sept. 9.