Below is full verbiage of the memorial statement of the unveiling of the permanent Lee Highway Memorial to the “Chattanooga 5” – and the music video using Cody McCarver’s song, “I’m America” as soundtrack
July 16th, 2015, 10:45am. A vicious attack on local military recruiting stations. The heartbreaking tally after a day of senseless violence? Five Dead. More wounded. And a city that believed, as most do, that “It will NEVER happen here!” left stunned.
Shocking the nation, reverberating around the globe…the first shots were fired where you currently stand…here, at 6219 Lee Highway.
Marines. Sailors. Police Officers. All wore uniforms. All knew, full-well, just how high the price for doing so MIGHT run.
But this attack didn’t happen in a battle zone…not while on the front lines in the middle of a hot war. This act of cowardice, praised by cowards around the globe…enemies of all that’s decent on our planet. This happened at home…gunned down with cold-blooded, well-planned precision by one of our own…a young man raised here among us.
This plaque rests here, though, because they were also….us. People, neighbors and friends. As the city’s collective heart searched for a way to free itself from the great weight of the sadness that bore down upon it…THIS is the place they naturally drifted to.
Pulled by an invisible, arguably illogical force, they came. At first, a few. Then dozens. Then hundreds. Then thousands. Flowers, flags, children’s drawings, tear-stained toys with messages of thanks and love.
It was a tribal reaction…a genetic desire to gather together…to draw upon each other’s strength. And It became special. Our hopes and prayers, is that it will always remain special. A place that, somehow, gave solace to a city stunned into confusion, murmuring the ever-present question: “Why?”
Instead of riots, we prayed. Instead of lashing out against whole communities turned easy targets for revenge, we invited each other into each other’s lives, homes and places of worship.
Thank you, Chattanooga, and all the surrounding communities who visited then and are reading this now. Thank you for showing the world that all the hate a heart can muster can NOT cause true love to cower.
Thank you, for proving that all the gunshots in the world cannot sever the strength of our roots….as steady as the mountains around us…as deep as the river running through us.
This memorial is for the “Chattanooga Five”…and for all of us, who responded to the unthinkable with the unbreakable.
