A UU minister I know well serving in North Carolina was recently involved peripherally in a shooting at a mall. Upon hearing shots, he ran to the closest store and hunkered down in back with the employees until police escorted him out about 30 minutes later. He is a resilient person and seems OK now, but I am left feeling sad, scared, and angry.

I am sad for my friend and other by-standers that while about their daily business their well-being should be threatened in such a manner. I am scared for everyone because our world seems to be getting less safe in so many ways, including by threat of gun violence, and I am angry about the injustice of all of it!

Whether it’s a mall in Winston-Salem or an apartment building in Kyiv, Ukraine, it is wrong that human beings should be under attack and fear for their lives. That I even need to write that sentence is evidence of how wrong it is.

Humans inflicting violence on other humans is not a new story, any more than stories of hunger, poverty, disease, powerlessness, abuse and humiliation. Our indignation and rage are reasonable responses, but alone they will change nothing.

We must not become accustomed to any of this. We cannot let ourselves become numb. To shrug and say, “Well, it has always been this way,” is to give up on our world.

That’s not who we are! We should be indignant and enraged our whole lives, and find ways to keep working against the tide of dehumanization and the destruction of our planet.

We are Unitarian Universalists! We don’t ever rest!

In wisdom and grace,

Rev. Ruth