Emotional Vigil Brings Southold Community Together To Stand Strong, Serve As Voice of Orlando Victims

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SOUTHOLD, NY - Voices joined together in a haunting version of John Lennon's "Imagine" as candles flickered in the twilight and tears fell softly Monday evening during a vigil held at the green in Southold to honor the victims of the Orlando massacre.

Organized by Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell and the town's anti-bias task force, the gathering was the largest vigil on the East End to be held in memory of lives lost.

It was a night of heartfelt words, music and dance, as more than 200 stood strong in love, facing down the forces of evil.

The aim of the vigil was to "affirm our unity and solidarity with the LGBTQ community in Orlando. We will stand together with people of good will in Southold Town to share our sorrow and confirm our commitment to the human dignity of all people," a release announcing the event said.

The world was rocked by news of the shooting at the Pulse Orlando Night Club & Ultra Lounge that left 49 dead and 53 injured. The shooting took place at the popular gay bar while about 350 people, mainly Latino, were dancing and drinking. The suspect, Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, was killed by law enforcement in an exchange of gunfire.

At the candlelight vigil, Dr. Carolyn Peabody of the town's anti-bias task force thanked Russell not only for his wholehearted support of the event but for joining on immediately as a co-sponsor.

The supervisor urged action. "We have all come together to share our grief and to demonstrate our unity with the victims and the families of this barbaric act. However, our response or any response seems inadequate, and when this service ends, you will not be content and you will not at peace because you are still living in a culture that lets this happen," Russell said.

"How can such a senseless act happen? Some will blame the radicalization of the perpetrator by ISIS. Perhaps, but we shouldn’t be so quick to let ourselves off the hook. We hear rhetoric that fosters hate. We watch legislation get passed that halts progress. But the real culprit, the real challenge to our society, is ambivalence."

The indifference of those who sit on the sidelines and stay silent because they think the battle is not their fight is the greatest challenge faced, Russell said. "What will it take for you to join the fight? This isn’t a crime against the gay, lesbian and transsexual community. It’s a crime against you, it’s a crime against us all.I urge you, get off the sidelines and decide right here, right now that you will join the fight and help us ensure that we all have the right to live with dignity and that we will never let this happen again."

Peabody said the 49 lost were men and women just like everyone present, who wanted to "love and be loved, who deserved to be treated with human dignity. We are a people who refused to be defined by hate. Love is our strength. We refuse to let hate splinter us." To fight back against evil it's necessary "to be the voice of love," she said.

Rabbi Gadi Capela of Congregation Tifereth Israel said it is the job of faith leaders who see those suffering in a dark place to intervene and hear "the call to act. It's not enough to pray."

Marj Snyder, board member of the North Fork Women for Women Fund, said everyone at Pulse on that dark night, singing and dancing, laughing and loving, had a right to be there savoring life without becoming victims "of a horrific act of violence."

Just like the children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, she said, those at Pulse "were not at the wrong place at the wrong time. They had the right to be there."

Gay bars, she added, have long been a safe haven, "the one place we could count on, where we could be ourselves."

Faced with evil, across the United States, people are coming together to fight back against darkness. "By being here today we reject silence and speak out for the victims. We cannot remain silent," she said.

Susan Grathwohl Dingle and Robert "Bubbie" Brown of the Poets of Poetry Street read poems. "Every one of us is a child of God," Brown told the crowd.

Greenport Village Mayor George Hubbard said residents need to look out for and protect one another.

Rev. Dr. Ann Van Cleef, pastor of the Orient Congregational Church, who also organized a prayer vigil last week, said she remembered speaking soon after 9/11 of how the country, once safe between two oceans, had seen its own airplanes used as weapons of mass destruction.

Today, she said, social media has helped terrorists "to get into the minds of vulnerable men and women". But, she said, people cannot "return hate, to hate." Quoting Martin Luther King, she said, "Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

Rev. Nathanel Heyward Sr. of Clinton Memorial AME Zion Church spoke of Orlando: "My take on what has happened is society has turned away from God" turning instead to greed, pleasure and fun.

When she was first asked to speak, Dr. Margaret Cowden said she was uncertain, not sure she'd have the words. Then, she realized, "I must find the words because silence is killing us."

Dr. Peter Kelley led the crowd in a spirited, youthful audience response; Rev. Peter J. Garry of St. Patrick's R.C. Church in Southold also spoke.

In a heart-rending moment, Sonia Spar, co-chair of the Southold Anti-Bias Task Force, her voice filled with tears, read the names of those lost in the shooting, which were written on a long paper scroll. Candles were lit for every life lost.

Next, members of the MainStage Dance Academy Lyrical Company, organized by founder, executive and artistic director Lucille Naar-Saladino, performed "Letters from the Sky" by Civil Twilight.

The candles, which had been lit, flickered out in the wind, said Peabody. "It took a lot of work to light them and the candles blew out." But then, she said, she realized that it was symbolic of the lives ended senselessly in Orlando. "That's exactly what happened. They blew out," she said.

As Elizabeth Bannon and Rob Europe sang a tearful version of "Imagine' the crowd raised their voices in song, together.

Val Shelby, co-chair of the SABTF, concluded the service with the simple words and truth: "All you need is love."