CRISIS: Mayor Plusquellic's Remarks for Prayer Service

        Thank you all for joining together this afternoon in this prayer service.

        And my special thanks to Reverend Ron Fowler for always being a guiding spiritual light for the entire community of Akron.

        Your leadership, Reverend Fowler, is very much appreciated and very much needed…especially in these trying times.

        We are still shocked and angered today by what has happened.

        And while many may feel helpless at this point, we should not because our nation stands strong and there is indeed much we can do.

        This service today is one step toward healing.

        Let this show of love and compassion here today contribute to the consciousness of this nation and help show the people who perpetrated this horrific act that we are not weak, not fearful, but strong.

        Above all else today, I want to tell you how very thankful I feel we are that this community was not touched directly by the horrible acts.

        And our hearts go out to go out to those who have been touched by it.  I would like us all to take a step back, though, and be grateful for what we still have and grateful that, as awful as it was, it was not worse.

        I want to thank the dedicated men and women of our safety forces.  They responded quickly and did a wonderful job of preparing our community and protecting it.

        We must continue to have hope---as difficult as that may seem to us right now---but I feel there is hope that some good will come out of this…something we are not able to know at this point in time.

        I was raised in a Presbyterian church and was taught about loving our enemies and forgiving our enemies and not to hate.  

        And I still believe that is a good policy, so I urge everyone to not begin to jump to conclusions and start in on an entire race of people.

        We need to recognize that many people before us fought to protect the freedoms we have….the freedom to believe, to speak out and even to travel back and forth across the country without fear.

        Many of these freedoms we take for granted.

        But remember, many of those who fought for our freedom back as far as 200 years ago were religious people who felt killing was wrong…but they took up the fight against evil and aggression to preserve freedom.

        The Bible’s message is good.

        I learned it as a child.

        But we must rid the world of the kind of hate and evil that has been around forever.

        I hope we have the will and the commitment as a people and have the resolve as decent human beings to fight this evil in every way.

        Believe me, I know this may not be the best message to deliver in a house of God, but in my opinion is a reality we must consider.

        My heartfelt thanks to everyone here today.

        We are a community and a nation of strong people, who must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a single message.

        May God be with our nation and our community.