This morning, we are sick with anger and sadness over the news of the tragic mass shooting at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, SC. Houses of worship, like schools, should be places where communities can gather in peace and safety to do the most important things in life: to learn, to rejoice and grieve together, to pray if they so choose. It has been more than 50 years since the bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which took the lives of four little girls. Yesterday, nine more innocent black lives were stolen in another act of terror, another hate crime, in a place where they should have been safe.
No words on our blog can suffice, but our hearts go out to all those affected directly by this devastating crime.
We also find ourselves—like so many others across the country—contemplating the ways in which we are all affected when innocent lives are taken out of hatred and racism. The teachers and students we work with every day must contend with both daily threats to their safety and well-being, and complicated and painful conversations about these realities. Like so many others, this morning, we continue to ask, “When will enough truly be enough?”
Our daily work is in schools, but today is yet another day that reminds us that we must also look beyond schools if we want to create a more just world in which to raise all of our children.