You can watch the LMCMedia highlight video of the vigil here.

"Today we gather here as a community much in the same we came together after September 11, 2001, and as we do each year to mark that attack on America by the forces of evil.

Today we come together to support justice over unthinkable atrocities, respect over villainy, and good over evil. We come to support Israel in this time of great danger and to support those we know impacted by the acts of wanton murder, cruelty, terror, and fear.

The goal of the terrorist group Hamas is to eliminate the state of Israel and to kill, terrorize, and torture in ways that are difficult to even fathom, cruelty that is hard to imagine, and a lack of humanity that we have seen before and must fight at every turn.

We have seen how the dehumanization of a race, religion, nationality, or culture can descend to unimaginable evil. Genocide is made possible by taking away the humanity and the respect every human being deserves.

We must always remember that the road to genocide is paved by the ideology of hate. It is the denial of humanity that gives license to the brutal killings we have seen in the last week but have also seen in genocides throughout history, atrocities around the globe in our lifetime, and in the shocking increase in hate crimes, including murders, that we have seen in our own country in recent years.

If we believe that America aspires to human happiness and toleration, then we know today that Israel’s battle against Hamas is our battle as well. For men and women in any country who believe in civilization and humanity, Israel’s battle against Hamas is their battle as well. As we hear the stories of the individual atrocities of the last week, we must make sure the world does not forget the character and meaning of these horrors.

They resonate well beyond the individual acts of murder and tell the story of the world we are fighting for and what we are fighting against.
At stake is a world that values humanity versus forces that would return us to a medieval horror of death and hate. Let us pray for Israel, support Israel, and fight for the cause of humanity throughout the world."