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To Our Community,
This year, as we reflect on Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy, we are thinking about the painful gap between the world as it should be and the horrors we witnessed during the January 06 insurrection. We’re thinking about how, as NationSwell speaker Clint Smith wrote, “a new iteration of white supremacist violence” reared is ugly head on that day.
At the dawn of a sacred national holiday, we are deepening our commitment to dismantling the structures and cultural strains that perpetuate racial injustice in all of its forms. We are proud to stand with those who unequivocally denounce white supremacy. We join them in demanding accountability for last week’s acts of violence and terror — and for the leaders and organizations who fuel, abet or enable such acts.
The past year has shown us too many searing images of racial injustice in all of its brutality and impunity. In those images and in this unprecedented time, however, lies the hope that we might finally do what we’ve not yet done: squarely and collectively look at the legacy and plague of racism, reckon with its toll and work together to realize the promise of a truly free nation.
Historians will consider the significance of January 06, 2021 for centuries. May the story they write be about how we seized one of our darkest days to begin a new chapter of reckoning, healing and progress. May we each, in our own way, marshal the will and resources to contribute a verse to that chapter.
Yours in solidarity,
The NationSwell Team