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Vanessa Christman's picture

Thanks for this opportunity

We recently concluded the Tri-Co program, and while we were very busy looking at the personal and systemic factors contributing to racism in the US, it was hard to acknowledge that our tight schedule allowed little time to discuss this specific, current, national issue. Fortunately, Michael Brown came up in our smaller reflections. And wonderfully, my colleague Walter Sullivan *took* the time in one of our closing sessions to directly address the issue.

I'd like to add a personal story to the others expressed here. My son, who, like Michael Brown, graduated from high school this spring, will--unlike Michael Brown--leave for college this Friday. In his adolescence, he walked around with friends and was occasionally confronted by a police officer. We never had to fear, though, that one of these confrontations would end his life. I am aware of the many specific ways my privilege--and our country's privileging people like me and not people like Michael Brown Sr.--have led to my sending my son off to college, rather than burying him. I am thankful that my work demands that I confront this issue and seek to change it. In Arthur Miller's words, they are all my sons.

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