Dear friends,

This week has been another heart breaker.  New numbers of Covid patients and deaths and a new part of the virus that is involving children. We are frustrated by those that are being frivolous and putting us all at risk. We are also so impressed and thankful for all of the people that are taking care of each other. It is great to see the kindness and unselfishness of people all over the country.

On the other side of our heartbreak is the violence that continues in a number of ways.  Our mission is to reduce gun violence but we are also committed to reducing all violence.

This week we watched in horror as George Floyd was killed for all of us to see.  A policeman kneeling on his neck until he died!!! Other police watching and helping to hold him down!  Witnesses pleading for them to stop as the victim begged for his life because he couldn’t breathe, until he couldn’t breathe anymore. This should not happen. We are better than this. This man has lost his life because there is hatred, racism, and acceptance of violence.

People are angry. It wasn’t the first time this kind of violence happened. It should be the last and we all have a responsibility to make sure it stops. We need to stop the hate now, today, immediately.

Our sympathy goes out to George Floyd’s family and friends but sympathy is not enough. Action will make change.  

“It can’t be ‘normal.’ If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must be better.”  Barack Obama on the killing of George Floyd.

OCAGV

“Non-violence is a way of life for courageous people.”     —Martin Luther King Jr.