More Vigils and Some Remarks From Last Night's

There are two more vigils scheduled for the women who were killed or injured at the Collier shootings. The Post-Gazette has the details here.

They also covered yesterday's vigil in downtown Pittsburgh. In that article they featured some quotes from Heather Arnet, the executive director of The Women and Girls Foundation. I believe her remarks last night bear repeating in full:

Good Evening. My name is Heather Arnet and I am the Executive Director of The Women and Girls Foundation.

We have come together today to lend our prayers and supportive words of strength and sympathy to the families and victims of the Collier gym shooting.

We are here to honor the passing of three incredible women, to share our sympathies with their families, and to pray for the full and speedy recovery of the nine other women whose physical wounds are still being treated, and whose emotional scars will be felt for many more years to come.

We have come together as a community to provide each other the space and support to begin the grieving and healing process. But we also come together to speak out against this hate crime perpetrated against women in our community.

This tragedy should be a wake up call to this community – and to our nation - that we need to engage in a robust and courageous conversation about how women are treated and portrayed in our communities, in the media, online, and in our homes.

From the limited information we know about the shooter, we know that this was not a random act – this was an intentional premeditated act of violence, a hate crime whose perpetrator targeted his victims for the sole fact that they were women.

Tonight, we are heartbroken, we are angry, we are terrified, we are desperately sad, and we are committed to work together as a community to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

Several weeks ago, a Harvard University Professor was arrested in his home and that single act inspired a national conversation about race in America.

Nearly every day we open our newspapers and read that a woman has been killed by her domestic partner. While the Collier shooter did not know any of his victims, this gender motivated crime, should inspire all of us to speak courageously about how we as a society respond to violence against women, how we can invest in more preventative efforts, early intervention strategies, and how we can develop strong sensitive men out of our boys and how we can create a world where none of our daughters need to feel afraid.

We will hear from others now, who will lead us in prayers and remembrances...

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