The week brought several painful revelations to the Perry community: A child starved to death in our midst. A family-run daycare center was unmasked as a torture chamber. An overstretched human services system failed again in a state that sometimes seems to care more for its swine than for its aged, its sick and its orphans.
A candlelight vigil was organized for Friday night by Jack and Erin Butler of Perry, and about 200 people gathered at the First Christian Church to mourn the unspeakable death of the girl nobody knew, 16-year-old Sabrina Ray of Perry.
Jack Butler welcomed the assembly and said it warmed his heart to see so large a number of people showing their care for Sabrina. The pastor of the First Christian Church, the Rev. Andrea Brownlee, also briefly addressed the gathering, encouraging everyone simply to be.
“Look around you,” said the Rev. Paul Burrow, pastor of the First United Methodist Church. “The power of a single flame is extremely powerful, especially among dark times. We have that flame. We can share that flame with others. When we feel lost, when we feel betrayed, when we’re not sure what we should do, we can share the light. We can share the peace with others who are also searching. There are no quick answers, but there is the light that we can share with one another.”
Everyone received a candle, and they were lit and raised in symbolic tribute to the child whose light was cruelly starved in cursed darkness. The guilt and shame of this crime is borne by all, an obscure complicity sensed by all, and healing and understanding are longed for by all. Community candles symbolize the community’s spiritual yearning.
Private acts of contrition were also common. Amanda Martin of Perry, for instance, said she and her daughter, Andrea Goehring, and son, Adrian Quijas, made a makeshift memorial in honor of Sabrina Ray and other abused children.
“It just breaks our hearts that she was across the street from us and in the five years we have lived here, we never once saw her,” Martin said.
