Arvada Strong Because Good Will Always Triumph

One final thought on my recent time in Denver standing watch over Officer Gordon Beesley’s memorial. As I’ve gotten older I have come to the conclusion that good will always triumph. That does not mean that the cost of the fight is not without great sacrifice. Sometimes the win is bold and obvious. At other times it can be seen through the little things.

It is amazing to me how something as simple and innocent as sidewalk chalk can be so impactful. When I arrived that Tuesday someone had left a box of chalk next to his cruiser. Throughout the day people stopped and wrote messages or drew pictures with it.

His family came to the memorial later that night, quietly and anonymously. They sat and watched the outpouring of support from total strangers. His wife and children grabbed their own pieces of chalk and wrote messages to their dad and husband. We taped off that area after they left, trying to preserve them.

By Wednesday morning all of the chalk was gone. A child asked if I had any more. When I replied no her mom told me not to worry, she would take care of it. A little while later a man showed up carrying a bag of chalk. He said his wife called and told him to bring it. A few minutes later another man walked up and said the same. When the third man walked up I asked what was going on. The woman had posted on the Arvada Community Facebook page. I received so much chalk I took a bunch of it up to the memorial for Johnny Hurley so people could leave their messages for him as well.

Every so often I would see someone curious about the taped off area and they would wander over. As they began to read the change was immediate and palpable. Some would gasp, placing their hands over their mouths. For most, the tears would well up quickly in their eyes. Others openly sobbed.

Families loved the chalk. It gave their kids a way to express themselves while the parents gained time to process and mourn. For the officers it meant more people stayed longer. It gave them the opportunity to really see how many people were there to support them as they watched through the cameras from inside.

Officers would come out when things got quiet, wandering through with their heads down reading the messages. Sometimes they’d nod, sometimes they’d smile, sometimes they’d place their hands over their faces, trying to keep their emotions in check. All of them would eventually walk over to the taped off area.

The rains arrived on Thursday afternoon. By that time the entire courtyard was covered in messages. We had placed tarps over his family’s messages but it did no good. Within minutes all of it was gone. But when the rain finished and the ground dried everyone came back and wrote and drew more. And each time the rain washed it away the people came back and wrote more.

I returned to the memorial a couple of days after my final watch for a TV interview. The messages Gordon’s wife and children had originally left had been written far away from the cruiser and done quietly in the dark. But now, right next to the cruiser, under the cover of a tent and lit up for all to see, was a new message she had written. I’d like to think the love and support from everyone had drawn her into a memorial that was first and foremost for her and the kids.

So what is my point to all of this? It’s simple, really. It is my belief that people are inherently good, kind and loving. While bad things may happen, while evil people may try to steal that from us, they will never succeed. When their attempt is finished and they think the ground is laid bare, good, kind, loving people will re-emerge triumphant and retake that ground. Evil cannot and will not succeed. Sometimes all we need do is look at something as simple and innocuous as a piece of chalk to see that.

That’s the final thought I have on my time in Denver. I’ll keep the rest for me. As a wise man once said, “That’s all I have to say about that.”