F rom its founding in 1976, countless clients have passed through Kara’s doors seeking solace and hope. With empathy and compassion, they have been welcomed without regard for their ethnicity or the color of their skin, their social or economic standing, or whether or not they espouse a spiritual belief or tradition. Very simply, we have honored their loss and the basic human aspiration we all share, to be affirmed and valued, even in our pain. Or perhaps because of it.
The tragic events that are unfolding in our country tell us one thing. Millions of people are suffering. Whether from an incomplete or sanitized version in our history books, or from the habitual numbing of our consciousness, the festering wound of racism has endured in our homes and communities, and in the economic, political, and educational systems that prevail.
There is no more escaping from these hard truths. Kara stands with those who are suffering from a history of accumulated and collective trauma, grief, and loss. Kara stands with all those who are peacefully putting their lives on the line to bring about change.
A national crisis like this demands hope, for as someone said, despair is only an option for the comfortable. Each in our own way, perhaps we can embark on a journey along the river of empathy and compassion to a new and real world of equality for all. In turn, may we come to taste the peace that flows from its life-giving spring.