Published: July 06, 2008 12:21 am            

Reconciliation week begins today

In honor of those killed in the Lockheed Martin shootings of July 8, 2003, the City of Meridian has declared this July 6-12 "Reconciliation Week," so named because of the efforts of shooting victim Rev. Charles J. Miller to help the people around him rebuild damaged relationships.

For Reconciliation Week, the Downtown Association will "paint the town yellow and black" with ribbons in yellow to represent hope, and in black to honor the memory of the Lockheed shooting victims.

Reconciliation week is sponsored by the City of Meridian, the Downtown Association, and Mission Meridian. These organizations encourage local churches to use the theme of reconciliation in their services today and Wednesday, and encourage all Meridianites to take the first step toward mending a damaged relationship or extending friendship toward a person of another race by meeting those people for lunch on Friday July 11.

On July 8, which is the fifth anniversary of the shootings, Mission Meridian will sponsor a Rev. Charles J. Miller Reconciliation Service at the Lauderdale County Courthouse at 7 p.m. On July 10, the Miller family will be serving free lemonade and treats at Dumont Plaza from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

"We encourage (others who lost family members at Lockheed) to choose that day to remember their family members," said Stacey Miller, Rev. Miller's daughter, of the July 10 event.

Five years ago, the Lockheed-Martin shootings shook the East Mississippi and West Alabama areas like few events have done before. It was on a Tuesday morning that seemed like any other that Doug Williams, a 16 year employee of the Lockheed-Martin aeronautical plant in Marion, walked abruptly away from a mandatory meeting, and returned armed with a shotgun.

Williams killed six of his fellow employees, injured even more, and then turned the gun on himself.

The six people killed by Williams who will be remembered this week are: DeLois Bailey, Sam Cockrell, Mickey Fitzgerald, Lynette McCall, Rev. Charles J. Miller, and Thomas Miller.

        

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