A Call to Civic Action

On a beautiful Saturday morning, my husband & I visited the Our Lady of Guadalupe Fiesta Mercado. Watching the dancers, enjoying the food and listening to the music, we felt pride in our community, as we gathered with neighbors to celebrate Santa Barbara’s diversity, history, and tradition.

To then come home, and to view this hate-based shooting in El Paso, allegedly committed by the racist writer of a white supremacist manifesto, was horrific, stunning, unimaginable.

The closeness of our community and celebration of all races that we felt in our own town at Fiesta stand in stark contrast to this Trump-inspired massacre, motivated by white nationalism and racial hatred, within our own country.

Our recourse as a nation is to vote in 2020, in massive numbers, to elect leaders who support common sense gun legislation.

A heartbreaking day for El Paso, for Dayton, and for our country, but a call to civic action as well, for every American.