Please bring it back. It's not yours. It means far more to us. Please bring it back. We'll turn our backs, no police. We just want the sentimental items returned to us. Please do it out of the kindness of your hearts. You made a mistake. Just bring it back when no one is around. Please make it right. Do we really have to consider a plea to these ignorant monsters who last week stole three benches from the Mission Cemetery? One of the benches has sat for six years beside the grave of a 12-year old boy whose grandparents visit him regularly. They bought the bench for their own sitting place and for anyone else who came to the gravesite to remember a vibrant young boy with a loving spirit who was taken much too soon. The bench sat alongside the two angels that guard over his headstone. The same headstone with a photograph of a smiling young boy with bright eyes and cheeks ready for squeezing. The hopeful in us believe the thieves will see the error in their ways and bring the items back. They were drunk, we might say. They didn't realize, we might think. We know what they did is beyond reproach,but still we feel the need to appeal to some kind of light in their black, black hearts. Please. Find it in your heart to bring back what you have taken. What would happen if we didn't have that sense of fairness? What if we decided to return their callous actions with those of our own? What if we get angry and demand that once these losers are found that they spend an afternoon with the families they have hurt, or any of the countless people who are angered by their actions? What if we demand through public outcry and political will that they serve jail time if the police catch them, no matter how much they cry about the unfairness. But we won't. Sure, we can talk a good game. "Boy, if I got my hands on them .... " but could we actually play out those feelings of animosity and outrage? For most of us, the answer is no. And in this case, that's an appropriate response, because in his too few years on earth, Daniel Tol taught many people to live their lives to the fullest without regret and to treat others as you would want to be treated yourself. So through gritted teeth and clenched fists, but holding composure because a 12 year old boy would want it that way — we say, please return what you have stolen.
