Healing in Highland Park: Community walks parade route on anniversary of shooting
Ed and Adele Kaufman spent years watching the Highland Park Fourth of July parade from the downtown sidewalks.
But Tuesday, they — and about 5,000 of their neighbors — walked the mile from city hall to Sunset Woods Park to reclaim the city and parade route as theirs.
“And in that sense, begin reclaiming a celebration on this holiday of freedom and joy,” said Ed Kaufman, a Highland Park resident since 1976.
It's been one year since the mass shooting here that took seven lives, injured dozens more and left thousands of others traumatized.
Yes, the healing has begun, and the scenes at the community picnic — music, food trucks and children's games — resembled most small-town celebrations this Independence Day.
But the mood during the community walk along St. Johns and Central avenues, as well as the remembrance ceremony outside city hall, was markedly somber.
Some paused at the corner where the shooting occurred. One group held hands in a prayer circle. A man consoled a woman wiping back tears. Many took pictures at two large signs bearing the symbols and words on T-shirts they wore: “We are Highland Park” and “HP, Together Unidos.”
“This community has continued to suffer,” said Adele Kaufman, a social worker who helped counsel those injured at last year's parade. “You see it in various ways. All the time if you walk uptown, you see people looking around to see if they're safe. People being careful about not leaving doors open. There's a loss of a sense of the tranquility and safety of this community.”
The ceremony and community walk were ticketed events, and attendees could enter only at security checkpoints through metal detectors manned by a private security firm. Highland Park police, assisted by more than 50 agencies including officers from Arlington Heights, Lincolnwood, Rosemont and Skokie, were posted throughout the downtown area.
City officials didn't say if that would be the new normal, or what Fourth of July holiday celebrations might look like next year and beyond.
“I have third-graders come through city hall, and one of them said to me this year, 'Do we ever get to celebrate the Fourth of July?' and that just really broke my heart,” Mayor Nancy Rotering told reporters Tuesday morning. “For so many of us who've grown up here, who raised our children here, we have wonderful memories. There is no reason that this one act of cowardice and hate should take away that joy from this community.”
At the ceremony, Rotering read the names of the seven victims — Katherine Goldstein, Kevin and Irina McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacquelyn Sundheim, Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza and Eduardo Uvaldo — and asked for a moment of silence.
“Eighty-three rounds, one minute — that's how long it took for a single individual to permanently alter dozens if not hundreds of lives forever,” Rotering said. “Let us each commit to using the power of our own voices to make meaningful change. Let us commit to continue working together to prevent future acts of terrorism, to promote mental health, to create safer communities. Each one of us deserves to live free from the terrorism of gun violence. It's a fundamental right.”
Joining city officials at the ceremony and community walk were a host of federal and state politicians, including U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Comptroller Susana Mendoza.
A temporary rose garden memorial to the victims remains next to city hall, where a steady stream of people came to pay their respects Tuesday morning. Some left small stones and flowers at the base of the seven sign posts — each containing a plaque with a victim's name and picture.
City officials say the temporary memorial will be maintained until a permanent one is established. The city council is expected to discuss next steps in late August.
Quincy Worthington, pastor of Highland Park Presbyterian Church, observed that time alone won't heal the wound the community experienced a year ago, or bring back feelings of safety or innocence.
“Our community might never go back to what it once was. We may always carry the scar of July 4, 2022, with us. But friends, it will heal,” Worthington said on the city hall front steps. “And that healing will come in two ways: The first is our togetherness knowing that we aren't alone in our pain and we aren't alone in this process ... and by doing everything in our power and our ability to make sure this doesn't happen to another community. Enough is enough.”