Kurt Reil (l), of Highland Park, and Danny Adlerman, of Metuchen, offer the healing power of music during the Dec. 22 Love In, Peace Out event at the Old Franklin Schoolhouse in Metuchen in support of the Newtown, Conn. shooting victims. PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN METUCHEN — Seven-year-old Sam Reuter spent his time at the Old Franklin Schoolhouse on Dec. 22 coloring a picture of a fire truck.
Unbeknownst to the youngster and the other children who were there, his parents and their friends had come together for quite a serious reason — to express their thoughts in the wake of the Dec. 14 school massacre in Newtown, Conn., which left 20 children and six staff members dead.
Reuter’s mother Tyreen said she reached out to fellow resident Danny Adlerman to host an afternoon of music, art and support for all those affected by the Newtown tragedy.
Musicians, including Danny Adlerman and John Wilkey, played songs of love, peace and social change. Attendees crafted a collaborative poster to be sent to Sandy Hook Elementary, and a message about peace and prevention to be sent to President Barack Obama.
The Rev. Barbara Crafton, of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Metuchen, speaks about gun control. “So many people came to me and it felt like we needed to do something,” Tyreen said. “I think everyone wants to do something, so this was something positive, and as little as it is, it shows our support from Metuchen. It also gave an outlet to everyone who wanted their voice to be heard.”
Over the holiday weekend, Tyreen and her family traveled to Newtown to drop off gift cards for coffee and gasoline, among other items, which she collected from residents who couldn’t make it to the Old Franklin Schoolhouse but wanted to show their support.
“Metuchen is similar to Newtown, in [that] it is a town where people grow up here and move back,” she said.
Metuchen resident Carl Klapper plays a song on the piano. Resident David Greenberg, his wife and two young children attended the afternoon event.
“We wanted to be here to show our support,” he said. “We wanted to hear others, and come together as a community and let those in Newtown know that we grieve with them.”
Carl Klapper shared a poem and the Rev. Barbara Crafton, from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Middlesex Avenue, delivered a message.
“Now is the time [for gun control], when outrage is high and we can’t forget this,” said Crafton, who said the little ones and the heroic teachers who lost their lives — as well as the shooter’s mother, who was also killed — could possibly be viewed as martyrs.
She said that once the nation has recuperated more from the Dec. 14 massacre, progress can really be made regarding gun control.
“Remember when we used to laugh at driving drunk with [actor] Jackie Gleason [from the TV show “The Honeymooners”] and remember when doctors advertised for cigarettes,” she said.
Those days are gone due to various cultural changes, including the formation of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which has been in existence since 1980. The nonprofit organization provides grassroots leadership to create major social change in Americans’ attitudes and behaviors relating to drunk driving.
Also over the last 20 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set strict restrictions on tobacco products, designed to regulate tobacco advertising and promotional campaigns.
“A paradigm can change quickly,” Crafton said.
Among the other speakers at the event were Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Amy Jacob, training and consultation specialist at the Violence Institute of New Jersey at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Pallone, a senior member of the health subcommittee, thanked the residents of Metuchen for their activism and for hosting the event. He assured them that their voices will be heard in Washington, D.C.
Jacob said the events in Newtown moved her to her core.
“I felt all kinds of feelings,” she said. “There are no answers to what caused this.”
Jacob said that there not only needs to be a culture change in relation to gun violence, but also relating to the perception of mental health.
“This issue upset me the most about this,” she said. “Mental health was not the cause of this.”
It has been reported that the shooter, 20- year-old Adam Lanza may have had a form of autism. However, many experts in mental health and autism have stressed that autism does not predispose an individual to violence.
Jacob said tough conversations must be had in regards to mental health.
She also provided literature about the Violence Institute of New Jersey, a multidisciplinary center that conducts research about the causes, prevention and reduction of all types of violence, including youth violence, child abuse, domestic violence and intentional assault injury, and also develops and implements pilot programs designed to reduce and prevent violence.
For more information, visit www.umdnj.edu/vinjweb.