I could see it in their faces: the sorrow, at yet another unspeakable tragedy stirred by increasing forces of hatred and animus; the confusion, about how to make sense of the country we now live in where our leadership gives license to such expressions of terror; the comfort, of being surrounded by like-minded citizens, coming together to express solidarity and deepen community at such a moment of pain and sadness; and—yes—the resolve, that we have the power to change this and we must step up to our shared responsibility, unequivocally.
This was the scene I joined on the Boston Common on a brisk Sunday afternoon, as more than a thousand of us gathered to pay respect to the victims of a massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh this past weekend.
And yet, this tragedy was only one of several in the past week alone, with the racially-motivated murder of two African-Americans in Louisville and the vile extremism on display with pipe bombs sent to more than a dozen critics of the President of the United States. All in one week.