The University of Virginia Football Team Mass Shooting ...

 

I hadn't planned on another post today (or at all), but this shooting happened, and our neighbor's son, whom I mentioned in a prior post,   is a freshman running back on that football team.

Here is Xavier's stats page: 

To be clear, Xavier was NOT on the field trip with them when this happened; however, 3 of his teammates are dead, and his running-back mentor is critically injured in the hospital. 

I just caught his father on the way out to drive down there for Xavier.   He seems in shock himself (hope he's okay to drive).  He said Xavier said he was okay, like he always does, but he didn't believe him - he can always tell when he's NOT okay :(

BTW - this same family is first cousins with Kenneth Walker - boyfriend of  Breonna Taylor (Louisville racist cop shooting). 

(Louisville cops just kept trying every way in the world to find something to pin on Kenneth to justify the shooting, but there was nothing - because they were looking for someone else entirely!)

Meanwhile, Xavier just somehow keeps on, keeping on, getting straight A's all his life anyway, now on scholarship at UV, making yards on the field even as a freshman, despite all this violence that has touched his family, due to no fault of their own (to include a BS racist shooting at the hands of cops)!

He absolutely amazes me, the whole family does, with the amount of adversity they have had to endure and been able to overcome.

Really puts all our own troubles in perspective, doesn't it? 

And there is something we can do to help - something we HAVE to do - which is vote and contact our congress members to do more, both about gun violence in America in general AND the social injustice of police playing judge and jury, automatically sentencing people of color to death by gunshot!