OPINION|
Twenty-three crosses. Twenty-three lives lost. Twenty-three homicides.
The Rev. Nolan Porter, pastor of University Heights Baptist Church, explains to me why his church has placed white crosses on its lawn facing National Avenue for the first time in its 78-year history.
Each cross has the name and age of a person killed by violence thus far in 2023 in Greene or Christian counties. Included on each cross is the date of the death. All but a couple were killed with guns.
“We've been thinking about this specifically since the shootings in Uvalde, Texas, close to my hometown,” Porter says. “We were thinking about that, and just trying to consider what in the world we could do to make any difference at all, or move the needle, or even make somebody think about it for longer than five minutes.”
May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The shooter was shot and killed at the scene.
“We want to shine a spotlight on violence and the things that make us choose violence,” Porter tells me. “But we also we want to grieve with those families that are grieving. They are going to have their first Christmas without somebody that they love.”
The crosses will be removed following a “Longest Night” candlelight vigil remembrance service at 6 p.m. at the church on the winter solstice, Thursday, Dec. 21, the day of the year with the least light from sunrise to sunset.
As Porter talks to me, three members of his congregation pound crosses into the earth. One of them is Bob Reed, whom I will get to in a moment.
Some had brushes with law; it doesn't matter
Some of those 23 dead had brushes with the law. Any cop, prosecutor or crime-beat reporter knows that sometimes homicide victims are not necessarily Boy Scouts.
Of the 23 remembrance crosses, three represent people killed by law enforcement agents.
It does not matter, Porter tells me.
“All of these people were still people,” Porter says. “They were still loved by somebody. And no matter what their life looked like at different times, I'm sure that all of them also were a light in the world at times in their life, too. Their life still mattered.”
The crosses went up Tuesday. Soon after that, the parents of Michael Miller, 39, who was shot and killed Aug. 30, stopped at the church to express their gratitude, Porter says.
Church member's daughter, 18, was stabbed to death in 2009
Reed, 75, has been a member of University Heights Baptist Church for 12 years. He knows grief. His daughter, Anne, was stabbed to death in Nevada in 2009.
She was 18, two days from graduating high school.
Reed puts his hammer at rest to talk to me.
He tells me his pastor back then — when he lived in the Kansas City area — was helpful in dealing with the grief and trauma.
It was a year after that, about 2010, Reed says, that the church he had attended then did what University Heights Baptist is doing now — erecting crosses in December in memory of those who had been killed in their community that year. Reed suggested that University Heights Baptist do something similar.
I ask him if he thinks the gesture of remembrance will help reduce violence or provide solace grief?
“I don't know the answer to that,” Reed says. “I hope it does. What I tell people is that it doesn't seem possible, but over time it gets better. You get to a point where you have a chance to remember the good of the person. And that memory will eventually outweigh the bad feelings from the manner of death.”
I stand back and gaze at the crosses. Three thoughts come to mind.
First, some folks passing on National Avenue will see the crosses and mistakenly assume it's an anti-abortion message.
Second, I recall that just one block south on National — at Loren Street — for almost four years Scott Sturm every week put up a simple, kind and family-friendly messages in 24-inch plastic letters. He did this rain or shine.
Strum started this when COVID hit the Ozarks in March 2020. His final message — No. 126 — was “Stay Classy Springfield Peace Out.”
Third, it occurs to me that there are another 16 days to the Dec. 21 remembrance vigil.
I circle back to Porter to ask if he has considered the possibility there will be more homicides between now and then.
“It has,” he says. “Unfortunately, we're prepared at some level for that already. We made 30 crosses. Just a couple of months ago, I think, we were at 17 or 18. Now we're at 23.”
Names on crosses
Nathan Williams, 25, Nov. 18, in Springfield
Chaviz Nguyen, 26, Nov. 14, in Springfield
Lacey Nix, 32, Nov. 13, in Springfield
Jacob Gatten, 33, Oct. 29, in Springfield
Domingues Buenrostro, 26, Oct. 14, in Springfield
Cole Marcinek, 24, Sept. 1, in Springfield
Jimmy Hale, 66, Aug. 30, in Sparta
Michael Miller, 39, Aug. 30, in Springfield
Larry McCoo, 35, Aug. 6, in Springfield
Gary Barlow, 46, July 14, in Springfield
Keontae Tureaud, 19, July 3, in Springfield
Kayden Morton, 23, June 25, in Springfield
Jason Walker, 22, June 15, in Springfield
Adrian Gutierrez, 24, June 8, in Springfield
Stephen Meyle, 37, May 16, in Springfield
Jimmie E. Johnson III, 42, May 3, in Springfield
Travis Bullington, 52, April 28, in Ozark
Judith Conti, 79, April 21, in Greene County
Donna Spellmeier, 62, April 18, in Springfield
Lavelle Rose III, 18, April 17, in Springfield
Michael Gann, 43, April 7, in Greene County
Crystal Dye, 41, March 7, in Springfield
Justin Barker, 33, Feb. 1, in Springfield
This is Pokin Around column No. 149.
