Jack Richardson (HPHS Class of 2015)

I’ve been so haunted by the thought of the silence on central Avenue.

I finally broke down on the night of July 5th. I spent July 5th out walking and drinking to clear my head. I sobbed until I fell asleep. I’m a quiet crier. The cry I had, while necessary, felt so unnatural. Unnatural because it’s not natural to have to feel this amount of sadness and despair. It might’ve been the shock in my body finally slipping away. I pretended like I was okay until I finally knew I wasn’t. 


I’ll never understand. Last Thursday, I went to visit my parents and took the time to walk around downtown Highland Park. Wanted to see what had changed and what was new. My brother working at Zuzus. I went to visit the Landmark where I once managed at. My first job ever. I was flooded with memories of my time growing up in our incredible neighborhood. I’ll admit, I spent my time growing up anxiously awaiting the opportunity to leave Highland Park. Wanted to leave the bubble. We all did at some point. But on Thursday, I had a moment to fully realize how much I missed this city and the love I will always have for Highland Park.

 

Every time these horrific acts strike our country, people always say you never think it would happen to you until it does. In Highland Park? How could it happen in our community? No one would ever expect it in Highland Park. No one should expect it anywhere. Getting the text messages asking where you are or where your family is…I hate it. It’ll make anyone’s heart fall apart. That’s our town. That’s where we all hung out with our friends after school. That’s where we all got Dairy Queen on hot summer days. Where we all spent family mornings at Walker Brothers. Seeing the shattered windows of Walker Brothers on CNN will never feel real. I couldn’t stop thinking about everywhere in our town that was in so much danger. It makes you feel so helpless and I can’t wish that on anybody. The town we called our own is not going to be the same. But even though it won’t be the same, we haven’t lost the good that Highland Park has brought us. Don’t let go of that. Don’t let go of the beautiful memories you have of your town. Don’t let them be washed away. Live in the times you climbed on the fountain in Port Clinton. Embrace the winters you got hot chocolate and read comic books at Borders. Love the fact that you got to laugh harder than you ever have with your best friends on your walks home from school. That’s still there. It’ll always still be there. 


Now, what do we do? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to answer that question. I’m immensely proud of Illinois and Highland Park’s leadership. I devoted too much anger and hate to awful people calling this, “typical Chicago”. But we can’t let evil win. We can’t let hate win. We can’t let ignorance win. As a community, we will overcome. I know that we will. But what we can’t do is forget. Every time this happens, we as a society continue to get more desensitized to tragedy and it makes me unbelievably sick. We see the news, we read politicians tweets of thoughts & prayers, and then the next week happens. Our collective societal memory forgets these tragedies. We can’t forget. I plead with you all that we can’t forget. We can’t go on another week and let another tragedy fall behind us. Highland Park, I love you and I thank you for all that you’ve allowed me to become. 

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