Pulse Nightclub Victims Remembered in Asbury Park
Paul: Today, we choose to celebrate love and not hate
The Pulse nightclub massacre second anniversary was commemorated Tuesday with a moment of silence, poetry reading, song, and thanks for a community that rose to help plant the memorial grove in Library Square Park, bordered by Heck Street, Asbury, First, and Grand avenues.
“Two years ago we experienced one of the worst travesties in modern American history,” said Ryan Jimenez, an organizer who was instrumental in raising funds for the memorium. “We lost 49 of or brothers and sisters in Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. That evening, I was so proud of my community here in Asbury Park because between Paradies, Georgies and us at the Hotel Tides, we organized a candlelight vigil to remember them. That weekend, we were able to put together a fundraiser to raise over $20,000 for the victims and their families. Not too long after we came together in this park to plant 49 trees in remembrance. They say it takes a village and they are right.”
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, 29, a security guard armed with a SIG Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol opened fire on the over 325 crowd inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 and wounding dozens more.
As they did the year prior, the group came together in solidarity and celebration for the lives lost; each remembered by a the planting of a tree and a plaque that reads in part – ‘Let Kindness Flourish.”
They began with the national anthem, continued with a reading of Margaret Mead’s Remember Me by comedian Jess Alaimo, who helped organize this year’s inaugural Women’s Convention, and ended with a ceremonial release of 49 monarch butterflies.
“To the living I am gone, to the sorrowful I will never return, to the angry I was cheated but to the happy I am at peace and to the faithful I have never left,” Alaimo read.
Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn gave thanks to the over 100 that gathered last year to help plant the memorial grove, donated by Jacqueline Klosek of Sunshine Girl Charities, with assistance from Barlow’s Flower Farm and Armstrong Tree Service.
“I want to acknowledge Ryan [Jimenez], who not only puts on the event every year but is the reason you see the benches and the memorial,” Quinn said. She also gave thanks to David Hoffman Georgies and Tom Pivinski, who heads the local Environmental and Shade Tree Commission.
Pivinski, who is celebrating 25 years with is his partner, said they received an overwhelming outreach from the surrounding areas.
“It was an amazing moment,” Pivinski said. “Three times a week we watered those trees so we would get a good foundation.”
Pivinski said the use of trees most likely reflects the young lives they represent.
“There is only one thing in nature that pushes itself into space – a tree,” he said. “We are all sort of grounded here but [a tree] is grounded but pushes itself into space; it takes part of the universe with it. And, these young people, who were murdered, they are pushing into space and they are reminding us that the only way we are ever we going to live together in peace on this planet of ours is that together we push into space – as brothers and sisters, as gays and straights; no matter what…Because of these young people we are brought together to become a bigger family than we could have ever imagined.”
Garden State Equality Outreach Coordinator Kayvon Paul, who along with Alaimo launched the Asbury Park Young Democrats Committee, said he is humbled that such a memorial takes place in the city where he was raised.
“We are gathered here today because of a horrific tragedy that occurred several years ago,” Paul said. “The Pulse nightclub shooting brought attention to the reality that LGBTQ people, and in particular LGBT people of color face targeted levels of violence in our society….The LGBTQ comunity is exposed to discrimination, harassment, violence, and unfortunately hate. On June 12, 2016, 49 people celebrating love and happiness in their life unfortunately succumbed to the unfortunate risk of losing their lives. Today, we choose to celebrate love and not hate. Today, we will choose to celebrate acceptance and not exclusion. Today, we choose to remember each one of the 49 beautiful lives that we lost way too soon. We will commit to creating a world without oppression, a world without hate, and a world without violence, ultimately.”
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