*REQUIRED. READ. CONFRONT. SPEAK UP.*

This is a sobering time.

In fewer than 48 hours there have been two shootings, that we know of, that targeted people of color.

The first was in Buffalo New York yesterday, in what is being called one of the largest mass shootings in recent history.

 At least 10 have been killed, with three injured. 

The second is in Orange County in Southern California, just this morning, where Asian parishioners in a church were targeted and at least one was killed. 

Both are being investigated for possible hate crimes, which means I must be circumspect. 

Still, I think it’s safe to say that no reasonable person could see them as anything other.

And now, as (mostly) Americans, we must confront, yet again, just how far we have *not* come in 65 years. 

I want to open space here in our shared living room for reflections, for voices of support, and for personal and collective commitments moving forward.

I want to be clear, this is neither the time nor the place for self-flagellation or for impotent calls for ‘healing’. 

This is also not the place to speak of retribution or of retaliatory violence.

This is the time to speak vulnerably and plainly. 

This is the place to rend our clothes.

This is the time to remember and employ all the tools and winning strategies, that we have learned and have honed and lovingly preserved, as to how we speak to each other as a community, as well as how we speak to those outside these virtual walls, and crucially, how we speak to ourselves in our own individual internal narratives in the midst of these tragedies.

In the midst of these avoidable tragedies. 

I am not going to be too directive here; not at first at least. 

I want to see what you all are thinking, *and I urge you all to have both the courage to speak and the respect for those who no longer can–*because they were killed by white supremacy*– to do this work right now.

If you, before this weekend, remained unconvinced of the urgency and the critical nature of doing deep internal work along with sustained reliable action, I would think that your ambivalence would lessen in the face of this.

So I invite us all to the flat and round table where we face each other and face ourselves.

I will include queries in the comments; feel free to respond to those or add your own comments. 

All Norms apply.

*I really want to see no fewer than 100 unique voices.*

And– absolutely– Primacy and deep respect and deference are to be given to African American and Asian American voices who have the courage and the vulnerability *and who take the risk* to speak in this circle.

Hold us well. For our purposes here, that means no scrolling and rolling. That means showing up so we can see you.

Do the work.