Blessed Are the Brokenhearted. Why dignity matters long after the headlines fade.

Victims ’ families deserve dignity. Full stop. Not when it’s convenient. Not when the cameras are rolling. Not only while a case is “active.”

Always.

A violent crime doesn’t just take one life. It fractures an entire family. There is a before and an after, and no one chooses the after.

Grief isn’t polite. Trauma doesn’t follow timelines. And justice doesn’t heal the way people pretend it does. Yet families are judged constantly.

Too quiet: they must be over it. Too loud: they’re emotional, angry, difficult. Speak up: move on. Stay silent: disappear.

That’s not justice. That’s cruelty.

Dignity means letting families grieve how they grieve. It means not rushing them because their pain makes other people uncomfortable. This is why I wrote Andi's Law, for victims' families to have dignity. To let them deal with their justice how they need to. As I've said before on this website you can look up the Arkansas law with an internet search. Just type in Andi's Law Arkansas. The law was written, and it means understanding that years, or in our case decades later, the loss still shows up. In birthdays. In empty chairs. In ordinary days that suddenly aren’t.

Our loved ones were more than the worst thing that happened to them. Please, remember who they were, not just how they died. I have to do this every day, trying to remember Andi for who she was, not what happened to her in the last hour of her life.

Additionally, victims’ families don’t stop being victims when the court case ends. The system moves on.

Victims and their families don't. They are not obstacles. They are not dramatic. They are not asking for too much. We are parents. Siblings. Children. Law enforcement. A community who watched all this play out. Tying purple ribbons to trees, hanging up posters, assisting in a search. People who loved deeply and paid a price no one should ever have to pay. Dignity should never be something victims’ families have to fight.

Victims’ families shouldn’t have to beg for dignity or justice in a system built on their loss.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18