A child is held Aug.7, 2012 in Oak Creek, Wis., at a candlelight vigil for the victims of a mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on Sunday. The vigil was held during the national night out event at the Oak Creek Civic Center.
(Tom Lynn - AP)
A shooting Sunday at a Sikh gurdwara in Wisconsin leaves seven people dead including the gunman. As investigators try to determine shooter Wade Michael Page’s motive, Sikhs and supporters grieve. Police say the shooter killed four people inside the temple near Milwaukee and two more outside, before exchanging gunfire with an officer. Authorities said the military veteran, who lived nearby, was identified as someone who harbored extreme racial views.
Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles penned the following poem about the tragedy.
Writes Wolpe:
Why do you suppose a man
Would kill some Sikhs at prayer?
Could he have suspected that
Just Muslims worshiped there?
Imagine how he’d be distressed
To know his aim was true
Yet nonetheless failed to hit
One Muslim, black or Jew.
The tentacles of baseless hate
Continue to entwine
And will not cease until their prey
Are not “them” or “theirs” but “mine.”
Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, David Wolpe is the author of seven books including “Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times” and his latest, “Why Faith Matters.” Follow him on Facebook.
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