Dear TCGIS community,
With school ending next Friday, even in COVID times, the plan this week was to inform, recognize milestones, celebrate. You know, normal school stuff.
Two community messages came to you on Tuesday. One celebrated the fun of Sauerkraut, the other rallied support for our ongoing work building intercultural bridges. Both were evidence of our commitment to our values: curiosity, kindness, challenge & support, intercultural engagement, community.
Meanwhile, our sisters and brothers in Minneapolis were reeling from Monday’s murder by a police officer of an unarmed black man. The awful, shameful, inexcusable narrative is receiving another chapter.
Fire. Smoke. Destruction.
Devastation on Lake Street.
Devastation in so many hearts.
Desperation. Despair. Anger. Rage.
Fear of the chaos. Fear of those who are supposed to protect us from it.
George Floyd. “I can’t breathe.”
Today’s community message is anything but “normal school stuff.”
The tangle of emotions from rage to fear to despair is playing out on Lake Street and in homes and hearts across our Twin Cities. It’s also present in our community and the purpose of this message is simply to say to all of you: the leadership of your school recognizes that our community is hurting, is angry, is scared, is burning.
All is not well.
In closing, I emphasize two elements of our TCGIS Mission, Vision and Values. The first is our value of
Challenge and Support
. We challenge our community to use our privilege to push positive change forward and to support our community members who are bearing the brunt of these events. Community members of color, community members who live near these events, community members whose businesses are affected: we support you.
The second is our vision:
Andere hören, andere sehen, weltoffen denken und handeln.
Now, more than ever, it is a time to listen to and to see others, to think and act in a manner that is open to the world.
Thank you for reading this.
Stay well. Support each other. Talk to your kids and hug them.
I’m thankful to be part of this community,
Ted
