 Thank you, everyone. If I speak like this, can you all hear me okay? Yeah. All right. I thank you for your patience with noise. I thank you so much for gathering here tonight. In solidarity, of course, with such a thing as Charlottesville. In solidarity with events like those in Barcelona. The people affected deeply and negatively at this point in our culture and in common culture by hatred. A Polish poet named Irena Bleczis has this to say, which I think speaks sadly to the present moment. I see now the present dangers. The dangers of the void of the American hollowness in which I walk calmly day and night as I continue my life. I begin to understand the ingenuity of it. The indisibility. The holocaust without smoke. I think it is sad and telling that those last two phrases, the indisibility. The calling Ellison's Invisible Man. And the holocaust without smoke. Suggesting that there is injustice transpiring subliminally beneath our field of vision. But it's important that we have gathered to try to focus more clearly on that fact. To gather our strength. And to see what it is that we can do about that invisible situation all together. The clubface is talking specifically about anti-Semitism, hatred of views. But sadly we can take the point more broadly and acknowledge that there is hatred and injustice operating systemically in the culture and we have an opportunity, if I would say, an obligation to respond. And that connection of heart is me to see so many of you gathered here tonight seeking a kind of response. Is there anyone else who would like to take this moment to say a few words to the present situation, whether faculty member or staff member? Danny, would you like to speak now? Can you hear me if I stop this loud? Every chance I've had this week to talk and welcome different groups who are going back to campus. I talked a little bit about the paradox that Baylor was describing and that we're very excited to see each other. There are ways that we carry happiness. And yet, as human beings, we are creatures and we can have very contradictory emotions because everyone is also carrying worry and concerns. And it's like how do you have both of them at the same time? When I spoke to faculty about this just a couple of days ago, I encouraged them to think about the kind of things that all of you would bring to campus, wherever you've been in the summer, the kind of things you'd be thinking about. And I asked them to think about one simple metaphor. And I think many of us thought if you do certain things, we will turn off a certain kind of hatred and the world will be better and we'll go on. And I think as we watch things continue to happen, I struggle to know what is that kind of metaphor that I need to look for and that I can use to describe what we have to do? There's a quotation from a woman named Krista Tippett. She interviews a lot of people who work with different communities of faith. And she finds people who struggle to try and create justice in different places in the world. And she comes up with a sentence where she said, these are people who don't wait for the right person, the perfect dancer, the best data, but they know that they are called to always wrestle to shine light to dispel darkness. And I think that idea that what we do is constantly work to shine light. Being here together, thinking about the kind of things that Belden was describing, we are all working to shine that light to dispel the darkness that destroys and pulls us apart that creates the racism and the violence that we are all talking about. So I would encourage you to think about how being a part of a community, being a part of the kind of encouragement that Taylor was asking you to think about, being a part of that living beyond labels that Faith was asking you to talk about, those are ways that being part of a community like this asks us to shine a light so that we can dispel darkness. Heather, statements from students or faculty or staff? I'm a UVA grad, and so watching what was happening on my campus was really, really hard. It just, it broke my heart, I had to remember that it wasn't, it didn't give them permission to do that. But what gave me hope was the next day, so I was really sad, my heart was aching, not just when my campus put everything that was happening, the next day there was a candlelight vigil that wasn't put on social media, it was just spread from one person to another. And there were thousands of people who convened on the lawn, and they sang songs and they sang spirituals and they sang this little light of mine, I'ma let it shine. And for me, it replaced the hatred with the peace. And it just washed away all of those things that could happen, at least for me on my campus. So I just want to leave you with this, and a good friend of mine told me, a fellow UVA grad said this to me, there are more of us than there are of them. And I always try to remind myself of that, and we saw that in Boston. There were more of us than there were of them. And so I think the hope and the light, if you can remember that in those moments when we are sad and we are down, we don't understand why people are this way, or how could you possibly be this way, understand, and this is how I get through it, is that there really are more of us than there are of them. Any other contributions, please? My name is Katie-Ann. I always wanted to emphasize the things that might also happen. I was in this, and basically, I was getting most of my information from people who were, I guess, live streaming the event. And they were talking, somebody was at UVA and he was posting pictures of it as it was happening. And I just remember being extremely numb, because this isn't new. You know, it's something that happens a lot. I think it even happened in Houston about a year back at Kermit Park. And, like, for me, it wasn't different. You have to deal with situations like this. It also wasn't different. And we were both kind of like, why is everybody so shocked? And I just remember reading The Pain in the World of Me by Teneke Hose that day, and, like, finally finishing that book, and it was really ironic, what he was talking about. And it seemed so surreal that everything he said fit so perfectly into that event that day. And basically, like, what I got from that was, like, you can't believe they would ever do that, or I can't believe that would ever happen. But we live in a world where everyone around us who knows how to be able to prepare ideas and thoughts just have to ignore it, because you think it's just that person, or it's just how they feel, and you can't really do anything about it. But those little things have such a huge impact on people's lives at the end of the day. And for me, I just hope that this isn't where things stop. Like, Charlesville isn't the last thing that's going to happen. Even if we try to stop it, it's not going to be the last thing that's going to happen. I just feel like we should also understand that Charlesville was after Ferguson, Erich Orner, there are just so many issues that have been publicized and didn't lack the same support that Charlesville did. And it was disappointing to see that it had to be this situation that got everyone to understand just how it was for a modern reason. And I think it can be silent and allow things to happen, and then hope that we have to be doing things. Like, it's okay to attend a BF2 meeting and find out what's going on with class students and their lives and what they're going through. It's okay that, for example, we can email the teacher and say, I can't go to school. And then I can't go to class. Personally, I can't deal with the emotions of how they should walk through campus, the majority-wide school. Everybody is, like, living their lives, but I can't because I know the impact of this election. Just people that I live with and the communities that I'm part of. And it was kind of like, oh, well, it also made me feel like I was the only person that felt that way. But I couldn't function during that election and it was just me because, you know, I'm just me. But I think that it's really important to take account of other students' feelings and how everything impacts them. And rather than just being silent, you know, oh, I support you, but also showing that support in other ways. And also just understanding that things, for example, they're, like, talking all over the school. And I remember waking up and my friends who saw it before me and I was just like, how could anybody just walk by that and not feel damaged pain and not even try to report it? People just function and it's just me. I know there's a lot of people on campus that do a lot of things, but if you're not being vocal about it, then nothing's changing. You can't just say, I am for all equality and then sit down and enjoy the privileges that you have while others are suffering. You have to give up that privilege or use that privilege in order to gain that equality. And this is weird, because this is my boyfriend who's white about equality. And he was basically saying, well, it's really hard for me to think in that perspective because I live my life and I get to do certain things because who I am, why would I want to give up that so that someone else can have equality? Because, and it's not like big things, but being able to go somewhere, being able to do certain things and my certain things comes from that privilege. And sometimes you have to give up that privilege in order for it to be in this situation and think about, you can think about giving that up. I think it's really important to consider all of those things. And so, basically for me, I just hope that this isn't where it's going to end with supporting other people. That this is not be the only solidarity that ever happened. There's just no solidarity for Ferguson or Eric Garner for other things that have happened and will probably happen in the future because without this kind of support that we're having right now, there's no way we're going to be able to stop or prevent things from escalating to the point that they got now. And that's the bottom line. Please thank again everyone who was courageous and up to speed down. We all know that's hard to do. More generally, it's hard to know how to respond completely to situations like this and to this systemic of injustice that is the rule. To conclude, here is a very recent articulation of that confusion and yet that opportunity from the poet Sherman Alexi. I'm not quite sure what I should do. I'm as angry and afraid and disillusioned as you. But I do know this because I will resist hate. I will resist. I will stand and sing my love. I will use my fists to drum and drum my love. I will write and read poems that offer the warmth and shelter of any good home. I will sing for people who might not sing for me. I will sing for people who are not my family. I will sing honor songs for the unfamiliar and new. I will visit a different church and pray in a different queue. I will silently sit and carefully listen to new stories about other people's tragedies and glories. I will not assume my pain and joy are better. I will not claim my people invented gravity for weather. And though I know I will still feel my rage and rage but I won't act like I'm the only person on stage. I am one more citizen marching against hatred. Alone we are defenseless. Collected we are sacred. We will march by the millions. We will tremble and breathe. We will praise and weep and laugh. We will believe we will be courageous with our love. We will risk danger and sing and sing and sing to welcome strangers. Thank you all so much for coming out of the church this evening. I'm so sorry. I know this is good. I already spoke and I know you all have things to do but if I don't say this I probably won't be able to speak. I think that Asia is so frustrating that we can't get comfortable. So I've heard so many times oh well things aren't her thing but America is the best we've got. And I've also heard oh you know people may be getting shot but they're not in change. And we say that like like it's a no. And I'm not ignoring that we have made progress and it warms my heart that we have made progress but I don't think I'm not satisfied with that answer. I don't know about you but I'm not. There's still progress to be made and there's still change that can happen. It should kind of depend on us to play the action for comfortable people.