This week, Charleston, SC grieves over the losses of nine worshippers from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, after a gunman opened fire during a midweek prayer meeting. The suspect in this hate fueled attack in a historic Black church is now in custody.
For Oak Creek, WI citizens, the tragedy in Charleston is particularly resonant. In 2012, a white supremacist walked into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin and killed six worshippers and injured a police lieutenant, who was shot 15 times. Their story is featured in Not In Our Town documentary, Waking in Oak Creek.
Today we share with you messages from Oak Creek to Charleston.
Blog
November 29, 2015 - 11:52am
Bullying: Unacceptable for an adult, unacceptable for a child. What will you do to stand up?
November 28, 2015 - 3:11pm
Standing opposite of the library at Grimmer Elementary School, the Kindness Tree mural serves as a reminder to all those who see it to cultivate kindness.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Grimmer Elementary School in Fremont, CA created the mural to represent the school and its diverse community. Collaborating with artist Brenda Pattee, the students designed the mural and chose the color scheme.
Unique birds representing the students sit on the tree’s sprawling branches, surrounded by flowers with the word for “kindness” in different languages painted on them and banners written in English and Spanish. All the languages, including Farsi, Pashto, Portuguese, Laotian, Vietnamese, Urdu, Arabic, Tagalog, Chinese, and Hawaiian, come directly from the school’s community.
November 24, 2015 - 4:41pm
My grandmother’s German passport has a big red “J” in the corner, and her passport name includes the name “Sarah,” which was added so that authorities would know that she was Jewish. She was able to flee Germany with only the clothes on her back and my young father in tow. They were refugees in Shanghai, one of the only places in the world who accepted Jewish refugees in 1938.
November 17, 2015 - 4:49pm
This fall, NIOS Director Becki Cohn-Vargas, Community Engagement Manager Cassandra Belson, and a leader from the Bowling Green State University NIOT Initiative, Ray Plaza, facilitated two community conversations to bring SJSU together to explore ways to create a safe and inclusive campus.