Amazing Grace Options

[Dawn Duree]

I remember watching a youtube video when Vince led the audience in Amazing Grace when everyone gathered at the Ryman the morning the shootings happened at Virginia Tech. I remember Vince said he had gotten the call about the shootings and and he left the golf course to participate in the memorial service. I remember watching all the events of the shooting unfold on the TV. I remember being so heartbroken, thinking that V Tech didn't look much unlike my alma mater, NIU. It could happen anywhere.

So here I was tonight in the Duke Ellington ballroom at NIU singing Amazing Grace in a prayer vigil for the five slain students at NIU. It's Chicago, so the Reverend Jesse Jackson was there, rather than Vince. But it was the same Amazing Grace, the same heartache, the same pain. I closed my eyes as I sang and could not believe it was happening again, and this time in my own backyard.

NIU, V Tech, Columbine, and all the other senseless shootings, they make no sense. I wish and pray that this sort of thing will stop.

My sincere thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their friends and family.