Shooting prompts community discussion @ Emanuel Congregation

At the request of Alderman Harry Osterman, Emanuel Congregation served as host for some 200 people who gathered on Monday evening in order to discuss and vent and share frustration and ideas about how our city may go forward with the fallout since the release of the video showing the brutal gunning down of Laquan McDonald. For close to two hours, we listened in a truly respectful and pained manner to a range of challenges. Everyone had an opportunity to be heard, and the Alderman responded both to anguished questions and honest queries with directness and clarity, including how public officials, including the Council, may have let the issues explicit in this killing of a blackteenager continue unchecked for too long. It was a moving and meaningful gathering, and we are proud that our Synagogue could serve as a forum for this initiative, even as we look for a time when such discussions, if only, may become just a matter of historical curiosity.