Rabbi Howard Morrison

Twenty-six years ago today, my mother, Helen Morrison, took her final breath. She was only 69, was a classically trained pianist and opera singer. She was the mother of four children, and she was a person of incredible positivity and acceptance.

Acceptance.

It was two years later when my very eyes, set just a mile from Wall Street, witnessed the eerily melting of the World Trade Center. As I write this note, the names of those killed on that horrific day in 2001 are being publicly recited, appropriately memorialized.

And just yesterday, an assassin took the life of Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old conservative influencer as he was speaking before a phalanx of college students.

Intolerance.

I'm feeling my mother's spirit and praying that the acceptance she taught her four kids penetrates the hearts and minds of a nation growing increasingly intolerant. Let's debate through words and votes, not bullets. And even in our debates, let's see the humanity and Godliness sewed in us all.