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Showing Original Post only (View all)Joshua Dubois: What the President secretly did at Sandy Hook Elementary School | Vox Populi [View all]
Below is an excerpt from The Presidents Devotional by Joshua Dubois, the former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Hes recounting events that occurred Sunday, December 16, 2012 two days after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members. Dubois had gotten word the day before that the President wanted to meet with the families of the victims:
I left early to help the advance teamthe hardworking folks who handle logistics for every eventset things up, and I arrived at the local high school where the meetings and memorial service would take place. We prepared seven or eight classrooms for the families of the slain children and teachers, two or three families to a classroom, placing water and tissues and snacks in each one. Honestly, we didnt know how to prepare; it was the best we could think of.
The families came in and gathered together, room by room. Many struggled to offer a weak smile when we whispered, The president will be here soon. A few were visibly angryso understandable that it barely needs to be saidand were looking for someone, anyone, to blame. Mostly they sat in silence.
I went downstairs to greet President Obama when he arrived, and I provided an overview of the situation. Two families per classroom . . . The first is . . . and their child was . . . The second is . . . and their child was . . . Well tell you the rest as you go.
The president took a deep breath and steeled himself, and went into the first classroom. And what happened next Ill never forget.
Person after person received an engulfing hug from our commander in chief. Hed say, Tell me about your son. . . . Tell me about your daughter, and then hold pictures of the lost beloved as their parents described favorite foods, television shows, and the sound of their laughter. For the younger siblings of those who had passed awaymany of them two, three, or four years old, too young to understand it allthe president would grab them and toss them, laughing, up into the air, and then hand them a box of White House M&Ms, which were always kept close at hand. In each room, I saw his eyes water, but he did not break.
And then the entire scene would repeatfor hours. Over and over and over again, through well over a hundred relatives of the fallen, each one equally broken, wrecked by the loss. After each classroom, we would go back into those fluorescent hallways and walk through the names of the coming families, and then the president would dive back in, like a soldier returning to a tour of duty in a worthy but wearing war. We spent what felt like a lifetime in those classrooms, and every single person received the same tender treatment. The same hugs. The same looks, directly in their eyes. The same sincere offer of support and prayer.
The staff did the preparation work, but the comfort and healing were all on President Obama. I remember worrying about the toll it was taking on him. And of course, even a presidents comfort was woefully inadequate for these families in the face of this particularly unspeakable loss. But it became some small measure of love, on a weekend when evil reigned.
From The Presidents Devotional. Copyright 2013 Joshua Dubois.
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