To the Person Who Started the Waldo Canyon Fire
Please turn yourself in. Call the Colorado Springs Police Department right now at (719) 444–7000. Tell the truth about what you did. Then ask all the people you hurt to forgive you. Talk to these people. You will find grace and forgiveness. A heavy weight will be lifted from you. Spend the rest of your life making up for the mistake you made. You might find something else in the process: friendship.
You took so much from so many people. Two people died because of the fire you started. Many more people died in the months after the fire because of the stress, shock and grief related to it. You took valuable things from so many people. This includes the only recording my wife had of her dad’s voice. You took Hospital Bear—my daughter’s favorite stuffed animal. So many of the valuable things you took can seem like nothing, but they were important and valuable.
You have the chance to give something valuable back to us. Tell us your story—how you started the fire, how you felt as it spread, what the fire has taken from you. Give us details about this thing that caused us so much pain.
The community stepped up in so many ways to help us recover. I’m a better man, a better dad and a better member of the Colorado Springs community because of the many ways family and friends loved me and my family as we recovered from the fire. Dozens and dozens and dozens of strangers blessed us tremendously. We have a much better home today than we had on the morning of June 26, 2012. Thank you, sincerely.
I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to holler at you or lash out at you. It’s time for all of us to put this behind us—you, me and everyone else. Would you please take a risk and turn yourself in? You have power here. Please use it wisely.
To everyone who was affected by the Waldo Canyon fire, please pray for the person who started it. Forgive him in your heart right now.
I have something else to say to you, and this is harder: Have you ever done something that hurt someone? Would you please confess this to them, ask them to forgive you and do whatever you can to set it right? Write your own letter to the people who hurt you or the person you hurt. Doing this could help you forgive and even bless the person who started the Waldo Canyon fire. Our country and our world need us to admit what we’ve done wrong, receive forgiveness and act to set things right.
I would love to hear from all of you, to talk to you, hear your story, cry and laugh. Please leave me a note.