I’m Melissa Etzler, but you may be more familiar with my maiden name, Richards, from Jessie’s story. I wanted to share a snapshot of my story with you.
It was a beautiful Friday morning, a week before my 21st birthday. I decided to go to the park with my late dog, Remy. After about an hour in the park, we were walking back to my car.
The next thing I know, I hear somebody running behind me and I turn around and I say “oh, you scared me”, you know thinking nothing of it. Then, I continue on my way to my car but my intuition told me “you need to turn back around” that’s when I saw the knife in this guys hand. I ended up grabbing the blade end of the knife while he tackled me to the ground as we wrestled for this knife.
Eventually he gives up, and I end up in the ER needing 15 stitches to my hand. The next few days were a whirlwind of heavy emotions that led to me getting the call to find out the man who assaulted me is also connected with murdering Jessie. This led to an even more vast whirlwind of emotions following the next couple of years. Being able to watch Love Is Greater Than Hate in its infancy to today has shown me that it’s possible to have compassion and move forward, no matter what.
I will never forget sitting in the courtroom hearing such compassionate forgiveness. That changed me and from then on, I have been determined to live through love which, believe me, can be incredibly difficult. Love Is Greater Than Hate has shown me that I can forgive others and that I can even forgive myself. I also learned that you cannot fight fire with fire.
In order to see change in our communities we need to let go of the fight and teach with love and acceptance. And as a community, a civilization, we are only as good as our weakest player. I want to thank Love Is Greater Than Hate for lifting those players up and being an exceptional example of what love is greater than hate truly looks like.
