After a gunman with an AR-15 rifle slaughtered 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, survivors of the massacre vowed Never Again, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes.
From the terror, tears and trauma, a movement for change was born, the newspaper said. The Sun-Sentinel published an online feature titled “Voices of Change” prepared by its staff Mike Stocker, Doreen Christensen and Yiran Zhu.
Here is one of the people they featured:
As soon as Rabbi Avraham Friedman of Chabad of Coral Springs learned of the massacre, he raced to a Coral Springs hotel to comfort agonizing families waiting to learn the fate of their children.
“We cannot change the past,” he said. “We cannot change what has been done. What we could – and we do have control over the future. So we always try to take that energy and that pain and turn it into something positive and something of action – beneficial for society. This was an act of hate. When society and our community come together and show care and dedication, I know this evil will not define us.”
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Rabbi Friedman has always, always been a dedicated, focused and devoted man. I’ve known him somewhat, for over 23 years. He’s so very given over to the productive goodness of life, with an upbeat spirit, for as long as I have known him. I’m not surprised by his sincere caring involvement with the victims’ families. I’m just so sorry he, or any of us, had to come in such close contact with such horrible pain.
Eidele Chassidishe Shliach making a true Kiddush Hashem