In the last six years I have also learned that when people get off the sidelines and stand together with those impacted by violence, the cycle of violence can be interrupted. On Sunday people of all wisdom traditions stood with one another to uphold the human dignity of all and our aspirational constitutional value of freedom to pray or not pray as we wish.

We may major in allyship with a few groups, but we can be supportive of many groups – and see the interconnections between them. We can still show up when other groups need us, even when it is beyond our field of study.

On October 11th an arsonist tried to set the building of the Islamic Center of Tacoma. Fire crews arrived quickly and put the blaze out, but the building was damaged. Even before the smoke had cleared the community was receiving offers by neighboring communities of...