Dear Neighbors,
Thanksgiving marks a time of the year when we get together with family, friends and those we love to share a meal and celebrate everything we’re grateful for. It’s also a time when we reflect on how the last year has treated us and what we can do to give back to the people of our community.
This year, I have a heavy heart. It has been a difficult year for our community, but we must seek gratitude, especially in these troubled times. I know many members of my community are struggling, some more than ever, and it breaks my heart. As we watch the events of the last two weeks in North Minneapolis, it can be easy to deny yourself the healing spirit of gratitude that Thanksgiving was created to celebrate.
As we continue to grieve, mourn, and support the struggle for justice as a community, I also encourage you to find ways to be thankful.
I’m thankful we live in a community where our neighbors, of all races, are actively reaching out to support one another peacefully in the face of the evil of racially-motivated violence and hate crimes.
I’m thankful for my family and all the things we’ve learned in our struggle. I’m thankful for my children, and my grandchildren and their love. I’m thankful for the work we are doing as a community to make sure they have better schools, safer communities, and richer learning experiences at schools, churches, and other programs in our community. I’m thankful the leaders of our state are starting to listen to our calls to support good community schools and after-school programs and to strengthen them for young families trying to get ahead.
I’m thankful for the random acts of kindness and love I’ve witnessed throughout these days of protest and violence. I’m thankful that people in our community care for one another. And I’m thankful that there is goodness in this world that will always prevail over the forces of evil that seek to stomp it out.
I’m thankful for the work of all the leaders who have come before me and cultivated the deep desire for justice and peace through non-violence in our community. And I’m thankful for the trust, respect and faith you’ve put in me to be your voice at the Capitol as your state representative.
I’m thankful to the people who get up each and every day to serve our community, from those who keep us safe, to those who educate us, and those that provide vital services we often overlook.
I wish you and your family and friends a peace-filled and happy Thanksgiving. As Dr. Martin Luther King once wrote: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Together, our lights shine stronger.
Sincerely,
Rena Moran
State Representative