The statement below is from our national organization, the American Ethical Union…

The core belief for Ethical Humanism is that each person is unique and worthy and irreplaceable. Our core aspiration is to live in such a way as to create and maintain a society where worth is realized and cherished and where caring and fairness prevail. That core belief and core aspiration are continually challenged by the reality that it is all too easy to treat people as expendable, to fail to perceive the worth and beauty in others, to be driven to act not by love but by hate and fear.

We despair that a gunman would end the lives of forty-nine cherished individuals at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a haven for the LGBTQ community in the Orlando area, and turn the weekly “Latin Night” celebration of life into a nightmare of gunfire and mayhem. We despair that peaceful and loving people would be the targets of hate, that a community that took so long to build and nurture would be mercilessly disrupted by the eruption of violence.

How are we to respond? Certainly not by giving into fear, calling for retribution, or withdrawing from the fray. Our true enemies are hate and fear and their insidious capacity to infect our hearts and minds as well as those of others — and we know that hate and fear are likely to grow in the wake of this tragedy if we do nothing about it. So let us instead stand up for our core beliefs and core aspirations, redouble our commitment to engage with the world around us, work all the harder to elicit the best of one another, and push back hard against the inhumanity that threatens to destroy our hope for a more caring and peaceable world.

The road to peace and justice is long and strenuous — let us demonstrate that we are ready and able to face the challenges of making that road a reality.

In Memorium

Stanley Almodovar III, Amanda Alvear, Oscar A Aracena-Montero, Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, Antonio Davon Brown, Darryl Roman Burt II, Angel L. Candelario-Padro, Juan Chevez-Martinez, Luis Daniel Conde, Cory James Connell, Tevin Eugene Crosby, Deonka Deidra Drayton, Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, Leroy Valentin Fernandez, Mercedez Marisol Flores, Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, Juan Ramon Guerrero, Paul Terrell Henry, Frank Hernandez, Miguel Angel Honorato, Javier Jorge-Reyes, Jason Benjamin Josaphat, Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, Christopher Andrew Leinonen, Alejandro Barrios Martinez, Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, Kimberly Morris, Akyra Monet Murray, Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, Joel Rayon Paniagua, Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, Enrique L. Rios, Jr., Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, Edward Sotomayor Jr., Shane Evan Tomlinson, Martin Benitez Torres, Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, Luis S. Vielma, Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, Jerald Arthur Wright