When I was a child, my mornings were filled with the quiet comfort of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street. I still remember watching them before heading off to my half-day kindergarten class in Frankfurt, Germany, where my father was stationed. Those neighborhoods, gentle, warm, and filled with kindness, shaped my earliest understanding of the world. As a painfully shy kid who felt everything too deeply, I believed those places showed how life should be: peaceful, loving, connected.
I think that is what ultimately led me here, to a lifelong commitment to ending gun violence and advocating for peaceful solutions to conflict. And yet today, like so many of you, my heart is breaking.
Yesterday’s shooting in Manhattan is another devastating example of a world that has strayed far from those values. Early reports suggest it involved a former youth athlete, struggling perhaps in ways we do not yet fully understand, with access to a gun and a tragic outcome. Four people were killed—Didarul Islam, Wesley LePatner, an unnamed woman, and an unnamed man—and another person remains critically injured.
These tragedies are never just about a single person or a single moment. They are the result of systems that fail to protect, of policies that fail to prevent, and of a culture that too often chooses violence over healing, disconnection over community.
At Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, we believe another world is possible. One where lives are valued, communities are connected, and solutions are rooted in compassion and justice. We are working every day to build that world, through policy, education, and care.
We know it is easy to feel overwhelmed. But I have to believe the work is worth it. And I am so grateful to know you are with us.