The Stars Above Buffalo, New York

43.24 degrees North. 76.72 degrees West.

I could tell you a lot about the nighttime sky from that position. That’s where I grew up. I spent an awful lot of time looking up at the wonders above Western New York.

I remember the three bright stars —Alnilam, Mintaka, and Alnitak — that make up Orion’s Belt. These were always the first stars I looked for at night, always so close together, so recognizable, so helpful to guide a child’s eye in a sky full of stars.

Guides are important. They are reliable. They are steady. They remind us that, no matter what is going on in the world around us, we are here.

And so I hope it is tonight for the people living at 42.88 degrees North, 78.87 degrees West — just a whisper of the globe from my boyhood perch— in Buffalo, New York.

We’ve read or heard a lot by now about the motivation for the senseless murder of at least 10 Black New Yorkers in the Queen City. People have analyzed a hateful manifesto, others have offered up the predictable “thoughts and prayers,” and some mourn silently in ways that no camera, no tweet, and no news story will ever capture or fully tell.

On these nights, when the systems around us seem primed to both turn us against one another and then fail to protect us from the violence, it is important to…