So, what are we going to do about it?
I have had the profound privilege of living the majority of my nearly 30 years mostly unafraid of random or hateful violence. This is largely a factor of my skin tone, the socioeconomic status of my parents, and the fact that post-Holocaust America has been one of the safest places for Jews to live in history.
Professionally, I run communications for a Jewish public policy and social justice organization. This means it is often my job to hear bad news first and then ruin other people's days with it. On Saturday, I heard about the shooting at Chabad of Poway while attending a Nationals baseball game with friends after several weeks out of town.
After I made a few calls, I did something radical (at least for me). I stayed at the baseball game. At least, I stayed at the baseball game for a while (honestly, it's not super appropriate to read and analyze a white supremacist manifesto on a cell phone surrounded by 20,000 people) because in that moment, I chose not to be scared. Some part of me instinctively rejected the notion that I should take the gunman's fear as my own, let it twist inside of me, then take me away from my friends and family.
This is not to say that other Jews do not feel fear, or that I won't feel it myself when I enter a synagogue on Friday. This is just to say that I won't let this guy win, and I hope you don't either.
