November 21, 2015 — A Conquerors’ Thanksgiving
It’s been a busy week…a film premier in Mt. Pleasant on Wednesday, and associated activities. The new film: Strong Words: The Art of Toi Derricotte. It is another film about a poet, the third so far. Films about poets and other films serve as an anodyne to films about murder. They are necessary in order to keep contemplating the horror of the intentional deprivation of human life.
Last Saturday I had the great good fortune to be invited to the Conquerors’ annual Thanksgiving meal and observation. It’s been said countless times, nobody ever sets out to be a member of this support group for the families of homicide victims, but thank God the organization is there. Conquerors formed in 2007 after Carolyn Priester lost her son to a shooting. (www.conquerors-sg.org) Of course she was grieving and angry, but instead of sitting on the sidelines, she decided that there needed to be a place for grieving families to get together on a regular basis. Not all of them families wonder who killed their loved ones; many of the crimes are successfully investigated and prosecuted. Carolyn, though, still needs to learn who killed her son, Lee Randolph Priester. Somebody knows, and all it will take is dropping a dime, even anonymously to Silent Observer: 616 774-2345. (www.silentobserver.org)
Well, here’s a visual accounting of the event, the talks that highlighted the much appreciated meal:
As you go about your Thanksgiving this coming week, please take a minute to recall the pain of a holiday with an empty chair at the table, the chair of a murdered loved one. And if you are THE ONE PERSON who knows something about one of those open homicides, please grow some faith, grow some courage to share what you know.