Discussion addresses responses to violence

Acknowledging the difficulties of dealing with the random acts of violence that have grown distressingly commonplace, several relatives and friends of people touched by such violence came together at the Newman Center Sunday night to offer a message of hope. Both students and community residents attended the moving discussion, entitled "From Fear to Hope: Nonviolent Responses to Violence." Student Health Services Educator Kate Ward-Gaus began the event by introducing it as an evening of "healing and restoring the hope." Three speakers addressed the crowd, telling personal stories of losing a loved one to random violence and the lessons they had learned from the tragedies. Richard Rosin spoke of his daughter's suicide following the 1994 murder of her fiance, Penn graduate student Al-Moez Alimohamed. Rebecca Rosin had become engaged to Alimohamed during her sophomore year at the University. "They intended to spend the rest of their lives together," Rosin told the audience. "They wanted to make the world a better place." But he said their happiness was cut short August 29, 1994, when Alimohamed was robbed and then killed after calling Rebecca from a pay phone at 48th and Pine streets. "It's hard to put into words what you do when you get a phone call telling you that someone you loved has been brutally murdered," Rosin said. "It's an impossible burden to wake your daughter and tell her that the man she wanted to marry was killed." He concluded his tragic story by explaining that his daughter had taken her own life sixteen months after deciding "that, in principle, she did not want to be part of a world of such violence." But Rosin said he had learned to cope with his pain by trying to share his story with others. John and Kathy Polec, whose 16-year-old son Eddie was killed in Northeast Philadelphia in 1994, delivered a similar message. John Polec said that although at first he and his wife could not bear to talk about the incident, they now visit local high schools to teach students about the effects of violence in hopes of preventing such acts from reoccurring. "There are so many children out there who don't realize the potential for pain they cause through violence," Kathy Polec said. Their son's portrait was part of an exhibit featured at the event. "Lost Dreams on Canvas" is an art display that remembers children who were innocent victims of violence. Local artists donated portraits of the slain children for the exhibit, which then travels to the schools that the victims once attended. The exhibit, which is on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will be at the Newman Center through Friday. An open discussion and prayer session followed the speeches, during which several audience members shared personal stories or offered their support and admiration for those affected by random violence. Despite the heartbreaking stories featured during the evening, all the speakers managed to relay a message of hope as well. "I think all the parents here have made that journey from fear to hope," John Polec said. "We didn't give up and we feel that the tragedy we suffered could save another child."