And Still, There Is Loss.

The seventeen-year-old younger brother of one of my students was shot and killed this Tuesday night.

I don't know what to say. Or think. I wish I did. Or I might know too many things to think, but not which ones are genuinely helpful or useful.

I guess maybe I should be glad that I'm not so jaded yet that I can't be horrified by this. Especially by the fact that in the city of Chicago, the cougar has gotten a great deal more media attention. Because the shooting death of a wandering cougar is far more unusual, far more of a hook, and somehow thereby more newsworthy, than the shooting death of an African American teenager.

My thoughts are with my student and his family. Please, send thoughts, or prayers, or whatever immaterial thing you choose to send.