My hometown is in mourning. Last week the unthinkable happened in a place some thought of as sacred. Eleven worshipers in a synagogue were gunned down by a domestic terrorist.
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I was in San Francisco when I heard the news. I saw someone post on Facebook that there was an active shooter at the Tree of Life synagogue. I knew almost immediately that if there were any fatalities that someone I knew was amongst the murdered. Sadly, I was right.
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My emotions are still raw. I was never under the illusion that Pittsburgh was or is a magical safe place. I am a black women in these United States. I can not afford to be that naive. But it still enrages me that some lunatic had the audacity to enter a house of worship and shot down senior citizens. There are some spaces that should always be safe: home, school, places of worship, but yet they aren’t and for many people of color they have never been.
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