The school shootings in Newtown, CT hit too close to home for some locals in Culver City. A group met up at El Marino Park on Saturday for a candlelight vigil and to vent their frustrations.
“This isn’t right, and we have to stand up,” said Leah Hardy, who lives in West Hollywood. “We have to say it’s not right. We have to fight for those kids and for those families. It’s not the society I want to live in.”
“Guns really are the problem,” Beverly Hills resident Michael Nourse told the crowd. “It cannot keep being business as usual.”
Others spoke of the importance of getting legislators to change gun laws while at one point two women went back and forth comparing the number of boyfriends each had lost to gun violence.
“I don’t think anyone’s really immune,” said Wendi Cole who lives in Inglewood.
Culver City resident Cicely Bingener, who organized the vigil, said she was humbled by the fact more than 35 people turned out to be a part of it. After hearing Friday’s news, she said she had to do something.
“These things happen, and you feel helpless,” Bingener said, adding she hopes people begin to pay closer attention to children who might be emotionally unstable.
“What are they up against that would make them so desperate?” she asked. “It really touches me as a teacher and a mom of boys. It’s about what’s underneath that to cause a child to be in so much pain. The why is not going to soothe a grieving heart.”
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