'Tuff love' triumphs, Georgia school tragedy averted

Jenny Sawyer

On Tuesday, August 20, 2013, a gunman walked into an Atlanta-area elementary school, intent on wreaking the kind of havoc that devastated Newtown, Connecticut, last December. But instead of tragedy, something amazing happened. A school clerk named Antoinette Tuff reached out to the young man with love, and convinced him to lay down his weapons. He surrendered, and no one was hurt.

There’s a lot that’s remarkable about this incident. Ms. Tuff’s grace and courage under fire. The way love can reach and soften even a heart that seems hopelessly hardened. And the larger story Tuff’s fearless act tells: that good has a voice that cannot be silenced.

Watching this very real proof of the power of good over evil, I couldn’t help but think of Mary Baker Eddy’s statement in her seminal work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Millions of unprejudiced minds—simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert—are waiting and watching for rest and drink. Give them a cup of cold water in Christ’s name, and never fear the consequences. What if the old dragon should send forth a new flood to drown the Christ-idea? He can neither drown your voice with its roar, nor again sink the world into the deep waters of chaos and old night” (p. 570).