UUSC Condemns Mass Shootings in Tucson, Ariz.

The following statement was issued on Sunday, January 9, 2011, by William F. Schulz, president and CEO of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, an international human-rights organization based in Cambridge, Mass.

UUSC mourns the loss of life in the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday, January 8, 2011. Democracy depends upon the willingness of all parties to settle their political disagreements peacefully. If it turns out that this shooting was politically motivated, as appears now to be the case, then it is an assault not just upon individuals but democracy itself. In any case, it has resulted in the deaths and injuries of many people whose only "crime" was their willingness to participate in a conversation with their elected representative. Unitarian Universalists are, sadly, only too well acquainted with such violence, given the shootings in the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2008.

Whatever details of this tragedy emerge in the days ahead, UUSC extends its embrace to all those people and their families affected by it. As an organization, we are dedicated to building a world in which peace and justice flourish. Events such as those on Saturday remind us both of how far all of us have to go in realizing that vision but also of how important it is to never stop striving for it.  Our very lives and the lives of those we love depend upon our success.  

Read a blog written by Shelley Moskowitz, UUSC's public policy representative in Washington, DC.