Twenty years ago today, I remember holding my baby girl and 3 year old son and weeping with shock and disbelief at the devastating news about the Port Arthur massacre.
35 people killed, 23 wounded and a stunned nation – where things like this, just didn’t happen.
I remember seeing the young father, ‘Walter Mikac’, who had held his wife and two little daughters bodies, on the side of the road, where they had been gunned down.
The deep grief and anger our country felt at the senseless loss of life and the madness and confusion surrounding the events, made for a gaping wound in the fabric of our society.
This morning I read an interview with Walter, marking the 20 year anniversary of this catastrophic day. The man shows an incredible strength of character. Instead of reliving the rage, loss and anguish, he has forgiven the evil perpetrator.
In the end, he said he simply had to. Otherwise, he would have spent the rest of his living days as a victim. Already having paid the ultimate price of losing his family, Walter has taken this moment of hell and with time has become a symbol of hope for others in desperate circumstances. The charity he established in honour of his girls, The Alannah and Madeline Foundation, has raised in excess of $50 million dollars and assisted more than 1.5 million children who have been victims of violence.
The power of forgiveness is a force to be reckoned with, a force that asks us to step out of victim hood and transform the carnage left behind into hope.
Blessings, prayers and thoughts go out to all of the Port Arthur victims and their families today and indeed to any poor souls currently caught in malevolent crossfire around the globe.
“Forgiveness doesn’t fix the past.
Though it soothes the present in such a way, that the path of life is prepared for a hopeful future.”
Janet Parsons
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