b'ADDRESSING SIGNIFICANT COMMUNITY ISSUESOur history locally and nationally is that we have discounted the lethal effect of racism on many groups in our communities. This year, the evidence showing how significant inequity leads to violence has hit like a shockwave. Bill Strickland, one of our longtime Board members and the founder of the world-renowned Manchester Bidwell Corp. vocational training center, tells me that much of his lifes work has been helping young people get past the damage of racism and violence in their daily lives. He cites the death last year of high school student Antwon Rose, who was unarmed and fatally shot by a police officer, as igniting outrage in the community. We must recognize, says Strickland, that the deaths of young Black men in interactions with police, and as a result of Black-on-Black gun violence in many neighborhoods, can be tallied to qualify as a mass killing. Their roots, he says, go to the same homegrown white supremacy, racial bias and abject fear of the Other that have played out in Pittsburgh, Poway and El Paso.So, emphatically, I believe it is essential that our Foundation lead efforts in the next year to examine the hate that leads to violence and develop solutions Michellefor eliminating it in community life.Kenney, AntwonWe must continue to celebrate progress and Roses mother,It is a question renewed in communities acrossprosperity, but our highest responsibility is to focus is embracedour country in the months since Tree of Life, throughon economic and social struggles that are hidden at an April 30the anger and grief of those who have fallen victimbehind railroad tracks, on hilltops and along rural rally inside the Pennsylvaniato hate-motivated shootings in Poway, California;landscapes. And because philanthropy cannot do it State CapitolChrist Church, New Zealand; El Paso, Texas andalone, we must enlist democratic institutions and our building inmany other places. elected leaders running them to make progress against Harrisburg.Pittsburgh has a grievous connection point towhite supremacist groups and other hate outlets that Kenney was joined bythose events. Prosecutors say that white supremacistfuel many of these shootings. 400 activistsideology that motivated the alleged shooter in the TreeIn his appearance before the House of Represen-advocating forof Life attack is also behind the violence committedtatives Committee on Homeland Security meeting in changes to the states Use ofby the suspect in El Paso. After his arrest for killingPittsburgh earlier this month, Tree of Life shooting Force law. The22 in a Walmart shopping center, the El Paso shootersurvivor Rabbi Jeffrey Myers charged that leaders who movement wasadmitted targeting Mexicans out of fear of an invasioncondone hate speechare teaching us that it is accept-sparked by theof immigrants. In the April attack on the Chabad ofable to behave this way, and its simply not.June 19, 2018 shooting deathPoway synagogue, in which one woman was killed andFor the sake of our communitys future, we will of Rose by policethree people were injured, the charged shooter saidcontinue to champion diversity and decry any tolerance and the acquittalhe was inspired by anti-immigrant and anti-Semiticof white supremacist ideology. At every opportu-of the officersocial media postings of the Tree of Life shooter andnitythrough our grantmaking, our civic partnerships whokilled him.by posts by the man charged in the massacre of 49and community outreach on issueswe will restate the people at two mosques in New Zealand.values that govern our work. Indeed, a New York Times investigation earlier thisWe are determined that through that work, year found that at least a third of white extremist killersPittsburgh will be the place that proves love is always since 2011 were inspired by others who perpetratedstronger. similar attacks, professed a reverence for them or showed an interest in their tactics. Lisa Schroeder is president and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation.6'