Annunciation

Dear Friends,

I do a reasonable job of remaining detached from the news for my own wellbeing. Sometimes, however, the news will rear up and hit you where you live—or where you used to live.

Annunciation Church and School, the site of last week’s mass shooting, is my alma mater. I have written about this place a fair bit on this Substack; it was part of the backdrop of last year’s series on growing up in Minneapolis in the 1980s.

Annunciation formed me culturally and spiritually. (I’m sure many of my classmates would say the same of their experience). My love of music was fostered there via an incredible teacher name Mary Strickland. This city block in south Minneapolis was my entire world for several of the most important years of my life.

The details of the recent tragedy are almost more than I can bear. It’s the same post-Columbine script, with a couple of terrible innovations. Predictably, pundits who have never set foot in the neighborhood are politicizing the situation. I’ll leave them to it.

Comprehensive policy discussions are desperately needed. Yes, the ready availability of such deadly weaponry needs to be scrutinized—hard. So does the ongoing mental health crisis that seems to be disproportionately affecting young people. We need to better understand why communities are fragmenting and our society seems to be eating itself alive. And yes, there is a spiritual component of the crisis that stands perhaps outside the realm of policy but should be part of any ongoing conversation.

There are plenty of thoughtful people who are already work these angles. The problem is that, because of our ever-deepening ideological entrenchments, they often find themselves pitted against each other.

If anyone knows of an advocacy organization that is doing the difficult work of bringing these voices to a common table, please let me know so I can highlight it here. It’s hard for me to imagine anything more urgent in American life.

In the meantime, I would ask everyone to listen to the bereaved, the survivors, and the larger Annunciation community; let their sorrow, grace, and transcendence set the tone for the reflection that is needed.

In that spirit, here is a link for helping those directly affected:

Annunciation Hope and Healing Fund