Dear Ones,

My family continues to feel the horrible effects of the killing in Buffalo, NY of innocents, targeted because of the hatred and violence of white supremacy. Our friends of color suffer more profoundly than we do, and they need our loving response and action. My daughter, Helen Lowry, wrote this on her Facebook page on Monday. I use it with her permission: “Whenever tragedy strikes, I generally hole up, and am sad and frightened on my own. Outraged by myself. Mostly because I don’t know what to say or do. I keep thinking, nobody needs my words. They’ve already been said. And nobody needs my prayers so it’s lucky I don’t pray. And nobody really needs my thoughts either, because why would that ever help anyone. But I have settled on this.

“This community needs my love. All of our love. And not just the East Side, there is plenty of love there to go around and around again. Now bring in the rest. The neighborhoods that are unsure. Hopefully this city can come together in real love. Love in the form of support and friendship, but also donations, time, and resources. Love in the form of understanding. Make them understand that the cold and calculated murder of people simply going about their day, just because they are black, is nothing short of evil. That such an act does not make you special, worthy, or righteous. That when you kill people because of so called superiority, you give up your own humanity. That white supremacy is a foul stain on the bottom of our shoe that we’ve been dragging down the road with us since the birth of this country. Since before that. That your white skin makes you NO BETTER than anyone else on the entire planet. Make them see that they too should be outraged. That they too should feel this pain and not be separated from it. Tough love to learn what is really important.

“I’m so sad for those people and their families. And I’m so sad for my friends and their families that feel this pain far more keenly than I. I love that you’re in my life, and my heart would be broken if you were not. I love you. I hope you can feel that. I hope that the community and city can feel it too. And if not, I must spread my love as best as I can.”

May you remember that your love in action to turn our country away from white supremacy matters so much, as you remember also that you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. May you feel it so, and may it be so.

 

Blessings, Rev. Rita

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/16/1099186443/buffalo-suspect-gun-rifle

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/16/us/buffalo-supermarket-shooting-monday/index.html