What a resilient nation we are. Lunatic terrorists slaughter thousands of our brothers and sisters in New York and Washington, D.C. — and two weeks later we're fighting among ourselves again in Cincinnati.

        As I drove to work in morning darkness Thursday, the radio was popping and crackling like a brush fire in Over-the-Rhine. Curfews. Rock throwing. Fires. Angry words about the acquittal of Officer Stephen Roach in the accidental shooting of Timothy Thomas.

        Someone said we had gone backwards in race relations; another voice called the verdict an “atrocity.”

        No. An atrocity happened in New York and D.C. Not in Cincinnati. How discouraging. We can't set aside our differences even in a war with terrorists who want to kill us all and let Allah sort us out.

        But then I saw a candle of hope in the darkest corners of our city: a woman named Bonnie Williams.

        She has seen hell and heaven, and offered a report: “My father was an alcoholic and he was abusive. My mother was schizophrenic. So I raised myself.”

        One of six children, she lived in a half-dozen foster homes. She grew up believing she was ugly and unloved. She joined a gang and sought love “in all the wrong places.”

        But something changed. “I learned I have purpose and I have meaning. God loves me. What I went through, was so I could help somebody else. I don't hate the world. I have peace now and I have joy.”

        Bonnie graduated from high school and is now a student at University of Cincinnati, with a car, a job and her own place. And when she finished her story, 300 people stood as one, applauded and shouted “Hallelujah!”

        This is how the clinging darkness of fear and clammy despair is lifted away, one heart, one life, one person at a time. And each victory is a beacon of hope we can follow to a better world.

        The crowd at the Lord's Gym Community Awareness Breakfast also heard from Rick Holloway, who told about his long climb out of the pit of crack addiction. The former amateur boxing champion is now a successful businessman. He has beaten what he calls the “dean of all demons that sucks at your soul.” But he'd be the first to say he did not do it alone.

        He had help from the Lord's Gym at Walnut and Liberty streets in Over-the-Rhine. He says that's where he was introduced to God.

        Stories like these must give the creeps to people whose idea of heaven is a world without religion. In their secular utopia, faith is taboo in public, treated the way sex and underwear ads used to be.

        But something happened on Sept. 11. Like a child who fell out of a tree, many in our nation went running to God. Suddenly, the sterile concept of “faith-based initiatives” has a face that looks comforting and familiar — like an old friend who is there to help us through a death in the family.

        Suddenly, we want to believe in miracles like Bonnie Williams again. We'll take hope where we can find it. And there's no source better than what they're using at Lord's Gym.

        Executive Director Dick Taylor said the mission of Lord's Gym is to plant “oaks of righteousness” in the harsh pavement of Over-the—Rhine. “Only God can do it,” he said. “Our bait was weight-lifting, and the only price was to attend Bible study. We've seen major transformations of lives.”

        Jerry Dubose, who teaches men to lift weights and pick up a Bible, had this message about the violence in Over-the-Rhine: “The best place to have light is where there is utter darkness.”

        As we left, the sun was coming up on another day. What a resilient nation we are.

        If you want to help Lord's Gym, call 621-5300.
       

        Contact Enquirer Associate Editor Peter Bronson at 768-8301; fax: 768-8610; e-mail: pbronson@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.Com keyword: Bronson.
       

City among last staying inside for chiefs
Next in line for chief
Terror victim memorialized
Air travelers face their fears
CROWLEY: Ky. politics
BRONSON: Lord's Gym
PULFER: Breast cancer
This principal has heart for the job
Principal's diary: Schedules, discipline and a gun
Bengals are kid-friendly
Children become fund raisers
Guard no longer a refuge from war
Mayors work through threat
NAACP endorses change by ballot
Tristate A.M. Report
UC prof to lead faculty in talks
Georgetown facility will be second for Ohio veterans
Muslims now find profiling an issue
West Nile virus in 9th Ohio county
Country western club spent time as a casino
Former Miss Kentucky sues pageant committee
Levee's just the latest in N. Ky.
New UK president pushes growth
Newport on the Levee awaits flood of business
OxyContin report delayed
Tech funds to NKU