During the tenure of the current leaders of the Society, we have faced many challenges that have affected the membership far beyond the mission of the Society for Text & Discourse. The mass murders in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas are unfortunately reflective of a persistent trend in the United States. Many of us are deeply saddened and shocked by these events. Many of us are dismayed by the lack of action taken by elected officials in the United States.  We as a community must not become desensitized to these events and accept them as a way of life in the United States. We view it as vitally important for us to explicitly denounce these events. While the Society for Text and Discourse does not take political positions as a matter of policy, we encourage our membership to embrace personal, societal, and political opportunities to act as their conscience directs to help end this systemic problem.