Blog | Informed K12

CTO's Thoughts on current events, support + resources

Written by Qian Wang | Jul 8, 2022 9:44:42 PM

Hi all,

I wanted to send a note to acknowledge that it has been a heavy, scary and painful couple of weeks: the mass shooting during the July 4th Highland Park parade, another unarmed black man, Jayland Walker killed by police, the slew of anti-LGBTQ laws that are going into effect and the ramifications of the overturning of Roe vs Wade already impacting families across the country and allowing various state legislators to signal their desire to take away basic rights for LGBTQ+ people.


I know I am not alone in feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and at times even numb to these unending tragedies. I just want to acknowledge that all of this can be hard to hold and that whether your heart is hardening, breaking or feeling numb, please take care of yourselves and each other. 
 
To help those in our company take care of each other, we are going to start a monthly community circle that will be open to any one who wants to discuss current events. We hope some of you will find comfort that there is a regular space for people to share their anxieties, fears, anger and hope. We will reach out soon on specifics of when and what time. Below I also included links to resources on actions you can take related to reproductive justice, gun control, and protecting LGBTQ+ rights. 
 

I leave with this quote, "That we parse healing and politics apart is some of what plagues us. To understand uprisings or to understand protest, you have to understand emotional repression. You have to understand that there are feelings that we have out allowed. Rage forms when grief has not been allowed or honored. What I have experienced in the streets is the convergence and expression of grief that spans generations, grief that has been silenced and unacknowledged but lives on in us. This is also for so many of us the practice of healing shame, of moving beyond the frame of respectability that we have been told keeps us safe but doesn't" - Healing and Somatics teacher BLM: Prentis Hemphill

And this beautiful rendition of "A Change is Going to Come" that was randomly recommended to me via Youtube.
 
Again I look forward to us being with one another, finding connection with each other and hopefully finding more meaning in the work that we do together.
 
Personal and Political are not dirty words at Informed K12
- Qian Wang, CTO