For MSU students in need of assistance, the University Counseling Center is available to provide support by calling 443-885-3130 or online via UWill Counseling Services.

We again implore lawmakers to take immediate action to address the epidemic of gun violence in our nation. According to data from Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 520 mass shootings in the United States in 2023. Everyone has the right to safely attend events, go to school, and do their job without fear of, or anxiety over becoming a victim of gun violence.

During times like this, it can be difficult to know what to do. NASW has numerous resources available for social workers and supporters of the profession who want to address this problem. We can, and must, do better as a nation, and as social workers it is imperative for us to demand change.

– NASW Maryland Staff & Board

When Brenda Mitchell’s 31-year-old son Kenneth was gunned down outside an Illinois bar in 2005, she took on the role of raising his three young children amid her own devastation.

“I truly learned firsthand the impact on families as well as communities of gun violence victims. It does not stop with the date of impact,” says Mitchell, who suffered a series of physical ailments induced by grief in the years after her loss.

“I think in my community at that time, we did not really have a full grasp of mental health treatment or trauma-informed treatment,” she says. “And so I did my best at that point to try to figure out how to heal. ‘Cause there was nothing there that said, ‘This is what you do, and this is how you do it, and you can get through it.’”

Mitchell, an ordained minister, co-leader for Moms Demand Action in Illinois, and senior fellow with the Everytown Survivor Network, credits a social worker with helping her process the complicated grief and trauma that surged 12 years after Kenneth’s death, as his sons reached milestones like high school graduation without their father present.

“She was the one that said healing is possible, but you have to do the work,” Mitchell said. “And she has been phenomenal in this process of grief and leading people and navigating them back to some level of normalcy.”

Mitchell is among the millions of Americans who have been directly impacted by gun violence, and that number is climbing rapidly.

“Every day in this country, roughly 110 people are killed with a gun and about double as many are injured. So that is a crisis. It’s hard to put it any other way,” says Sarah Burd-Sharps, senior director of research at Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.

Read the full story in NASW Social Work Advocates magazine

The widely televised tape of Tyre Nichols being mercilessly beaten by members of the Memphis Police Department was shocking beyond words. Similar to the murder of George Floyd, the country (indeed the world) was again a witness to total disregard for the life of young black man by law enforcement.

The brutal killing of Mr. Nichols is a stark reality that the promise of police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death was at best a fleeting notion —and at worse —an empty promise. In any event, it is evident that lethal of police encounters with young men of color is as problematic as ever.

As is known, all the Memphis police officers charged with the second-degree murder of Mr. Nichols are Black. Sadly, this tragedy inadvertently shattered the myth that racial diversity ꟷ especially where hiring Black police officers is concerned ꟷ would lead to reducing the use excessive and lethal violence against young men of color. That surely has not happened.

The fallacy is the assumption that Black police officers ꟷ or those from other communities of colorꟷ are less likely to use excessive force, during encounters with Black people, than their White counterparts. The truth is that police officers of color often identify with existing police culture. In reality, many Black law enforcement officers are imbued with the same anti-black bias as are some White officers.

 Also, there are those who suggest the fact that the accused police are all Black negates racism as the driving factor in the use of excessive force against Blacks. Nothing can be further from the truth. There is ample evidence that police brutality, more often than not, stems from structural racism that disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous and other people of color.

Thus, as we all grieve over the murder of Mr. Nichols, we continue to be at a loss over how to bring an end to police violence against people of color. Clearly diversity ꟷ while important ꟷ is not in itself the solution. A more critical priority is not to lose sight of the fact that the culture of racism in law enforcement is real and must be eliminated.

A second priority is that President Biden and a bipartisan Congress must ꟷ at long last ꟷ pass comprehensive police reform legislation. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is a good starting point.  

There are two provisions that warrant mentioning here. They are:

1. Ending  qualified immunity that shields law enforcement from being charged with civil rights violations during arrests; and
2. Creating a nationwide police misconduct registry to help hold problematic officers accountable. Both provisions are essential for police accountability. Now is the time ꟷ as a tribute to Tyre Nichols ꟷ to put aside petty partisan differences and pass a strong policing reform bill.

Equally as important, there must be a recognition that Mr. Nichols’s murder is not just a concern for Black America. His death is a continuation of a national tragedy that has existed for centuries. The nation has to form a consensus that excessive force, against any citizen, is unambiguously a human rights violation.

Disclaimer: The National Association of Social Workers invites members to share their expertise and experiences through Member Voices. This blog was prepared by Mel Wilson in his personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the view of the National Association of Social Workers.

About the Author

Mel Wilson, LCSW, MBA, is the retired Senior Policy Advisor for the National Association of Social Workers. He continues to be active on a range social policy area including youth justice, immigration, criminal justice, and drug policy. He is a co-chairperson on the Justice Roundtable’s Drug Policy Reform Working Group.

The motivations of the perpetrators in each of the latest mass shootings warrant further discussion. The deaths of five LGBTQ+ individuals in Colorado Springs were assuredly motivated by homophobia. The seven victims of the Chesapeake, Va. shooting were the victims of a troubled man who ended the lives of co-workers, no matter their gender or race.

The common thread that binds the two tragedies was that the perpetrators had easy access to guns —and there was an absence of effective guardrails to prevent them from carrying out their lethal act.

It is important to be reminded that these catastrophes have now become commonplace. In fact, during 2022, there have been 617 mass shootings .

More importantly, gun-related mass shootings represent only a small proportion of such deaths —and injuries—in this country each year. In actuality,  40,404 people have died from gun violence in 2022 — 18,426 from homicide and another 21,978 from suicide. In addition, more 76,000 American have been injured by guns thus far in 2022

Many of the homicide deaths are due to the daily shootings that occur in our urban communities nationwide — where most of the victims are young people of color .

The data shows  that people of color, in particular African Americans, were disproportionately identified as the victims of gun violence. For example: Forty-one percent of firearm homicide victims in 2021 were Black males between the ages of 15 and 34, and Black women accounted for 7.8 percent of gun homicides in 2021, compared to 6.9 percent in 2020.

The statistics on overall gun violence tells us that before we can end the carnage, Americans must become aware of the full picture of gun violence. For instance, the mass shootings that occurred in Colorado Springs and Chesapeake should not be viewed in isolation.

We often react to mass shootings based not on the totality of the public health crisis that gun violence represents, but (understandably) on the horrific images and headlines that mass shootings produce.

The reality is that approximately 50,000 people in this country will succumb to gun violence this year. This means that the United States has not only a mass shooting crisis, but also that the United States has a much larger public health crisis caused by the proliferation of guns.

In July 2022, President Biden signed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was created in response to the Robb Elementary School mass shootings in Texas.

While well intended, the Safe Communities Act is not sufficient in itself to effectively deal with the gun violence crisis. Much more — such as a comprehensive ban on assault rifles — must be done.

Mel Wilson, LCSW, MBA, is the retired Senior Policy Advisor for the National Association of Social Workers. He continues to be active on a range social policy area including youth justice, immigration, criminal justice, and drug policy. He is a co-chairperson on the Justice Roundtable’s Drug Policy Reform Working Group.

Disclaimer: The National Association of Social Workers invites members to share their expertise and experiences through Member Voices. This blog was prepared by Mel Wilson in his personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the view of the National Association of Social Workers.

While both men and women can experience domestic violence, women are more likely to experience serious (or lethal) physicall violence in their lifetime.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, someone is physically abused by an intimate partner every 20 minutes. This means that over 10 million people experience domestic violence each year. Over 85 percent of people experiencing DV are women.

According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), some 20,000 phone calls are placed to domestic violence hotlines in the United States each day.

Despite the data, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has yet to be reauthorized. VAWA is a critical component of the federal response to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. VAWA provides critical protections to survivors of domestic violence across the country, domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. These numbers have decreased significantly since 1994, when VAWA was first passed. But rates of violence are still far too high.

In an interview with University of California, Davis, Clare Cannon, assistant professor of social and environmental justice in the Department of Human Ecology and the lead author of a new study on domestic violence said, “The pandemic, like other kinds of disasters, exacerbates the social and livelihood stresses and circumstances that we know lead to intimate partner violence.”

During social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, victims and aggressors, or potential aggressors cannot easily separate themselves from each other.

“Compounding these stressors, those fleeing abuse may not have a place to get away from abusive partners,” Cannon said.

According to data from NNEDV:

• One in five women and one in 59 men are raped in their lifetimes
• One in four women and one in seven men experience severe physical abuse by an intimate partner in their lifetimes
• One in six women and one in 19 men experience stalking in their lifetimes
• A woman is murdered by a male intimate partner with a gun every 16 hours

Domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking, disproportionately impact women and members of underserved communities.

In all, VAWA has ensured expanded criminal justice trainings and responsiveness, targeted culturally specific services, prevention education within educational institutions, and expanded protections for Native American women and protects diverse survivors, including LGBTQ persons, older adults, persons with disabilities, immigrants, and others.

VAWA is reauthorized every five years. These reauthorizations allow Congress to update the law to reflect best practices and to ensure VAWA is effectively meeting the needs of victims and survivors. VAWA has evolved significantly in the past quarter-century. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1620, The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021-2022 (VAWA), with significant bipartisan support. H.R.1620 is based on extensive outreach to direct service providers, other experts in the field, victims, survivors, and a variety of other stakeholders. In summary, H.R. 1620:

• Maintains vital protections for all survivors
• Invests in prevention
• Ensures victim service providers can use VAWA funding to help victims experiencing a range of domestic violence behaviors, not just physical abuse
• Ends impunity for non-Native perpetrators of sexual assault, child abuse co-occurring with domestic violence, stalking, sex trafficking, and assaults on tribal law enforcement officers on tribal lands
• Improves access to safe housing and economic independence
• Protects dating violence victims from abusers with firearms
• Improves the healthcare systems and workplace responses to the four crimes, and
• Improves enforcement of court-ordered firearm relinquishment

Now is time for the Senate to introduce a companion bill to build on the Houses H.R. 1620 The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021-2022 (VAWA).

Social workers have been critical to responding to domestic violence. We provide supports at all levels of service for victims, families, and perpetrators, including direct support and services to survivors, case management and clinical services to children.

We also collaborate with other professionals to ensure the safety and well-being of survivors and their children, engage perpetrators of abuse through evidence-based practices, provide information to organize, mobilize, and educate communities on this issue, craft and promote structural supports through needed policy advocacy and implementation, and conduct important research that informs the field.

As we pay particular attention to domestic violence each October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we challenge each social worker to continue to find ways that they can be impactful on this issue. We also bring attention to the critical role social workers play in stopping domestic violence and communities around the nation and around the world.

NASW is proud to be a key advisor to the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (NTF) and work in coalition with allies and partners to advocate for needed legislation, which maintains vital protections for vulnerable survivors, while making essential enhancements to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.

Get Help

If you or someone  you know needs help, contact the Domestic Violence Hotline: Call: 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or Text: 88788 or visit the Domestic Violence Hotline website

Resources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Futures Without Violence
• National Network to End Domestic Violence
• National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence
• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• National Center on Domestic Violence Trauma and Mental Health 
• National Health Collaborative on Violence and Abuse
• VHA Social Work Intimate Partner Violence Program
• White Ribbon VA 

The shooting of 13 people in Buffalo of whom ten perished by an avowed white supremacist was a tragedy waiting to happen. The fact that 11 of the 13 victims were Black was no mistake. The victims were targeted in a planned and calculated attack by a white supremacist radicalized into becoming a member of national racist and anti-Semitic hate groups. In other words, he was  not a “lone wolf” killer. He is a part of a national movement that has been known to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for many years.

In June of 2021, the Biden administration alerted the nation about the rising threat of militias and white supremacists in an  intelligence report delivered to Congress. The warning highlighted the growing problem of homegrown extremism in the United States. Though the Trump administration recognized the need to combat domestic terrorism, the former president  was seen as being reluctant to denounce the violent extremism carried out by far-right nationalists and white supremacists. Which likely gave license for these groups to flourish — often in plain sight

The truth is that the Buffalo race-based violence was one of the several such warning signs of the rapid growth of violent white supremacy. Such incidents include mass shootings at Mother Emanuel AME Church, the El Paso Walmart, and the Tree of Life Synagogue— all occurred within the last five years and were driven by contrived philosophies such as White Replacement Theory. This conspiratorial set of beliefs claim that social changes in the United States (and worldwide) are connected to a plot by non-white elites to eradicate the white race. Supporters of the White Replacement movement believe that America is a white nation and should be led by white people.

White Replacement Theory is far-reaching and has gained currency among millions of Americans. In fact, the Buffalo shooter’s manifesto was taken verbatim from a manifesto of a White Replacement Theory adherent — who himself was a mass shooter who killed 51 people in two New Zealand mosques in 2019.

Political extremists have committed hundreds of murders

Over the past 10 years, the Anti-Defamation League has counted nearly 450 U.S. murders committed by political extremists  Of these 450 killings, right-wing extremists committed about 75 percent. Islamic extremists were responsible for about 20 percent, and left-wing extremists were responsible for four percent.

We cannot discuss racial and religion driven hate violence without pointing out that the carnage of these acts is inextricably tied to the proliferation and easy access to assault rifles — and high-capacity ammunition magazines. It is important to note that the Buffalo gun violence represents the 198th mass shooting this year, and 15,833 people have died from gun violence in 2022. Reducing access to guns will not end race-driven hate. However, there needs to be a national imperative to prevent the high loss of life and severe bodily harm— not to mention the emotional impact to communities targeted by hate violence —that are the result of mass shootings.

Leadership is needed to end white supremacism

The nation must come to grips with the fact that there exists a national (even international) white supremist movement that is growing rapidly — and is thriving in social media. To that point, there are several key immediate steps that are essential to take to respond to this crisis, including:

• A need for conservative political leadership. The lack of which is a major obstacle in ridding America of white supremacy, which has plagued the nation since its inception. Unfortunately, conservatives in Congress and those at the State level have been either complicit in promoting hateful ideology, acquiesce to those who promulgate race-based conspiracy theories, or both.
• National and state-level leaders from all political persuasions must immediately and forcefully debunk harmful and bogus ideologies such as white Replacement Theory, and the unsubstantiated conspiracy-related mischaracterization of Critical Race Theory. They must also end the real and metaphorical spread of “burning books” that make school-aged children aware of America’s racist past.
• The White House and Congress must work with major private sector social media companies and experts to provide oversight and develop standards for content that is conveyed through all social media platforms.

The race-driven mass murders that occurred in Buffalo and other cities over the last five years are the tip of the iceberg of America’s white supremacy problem. Coupled with anti-democracy voter suppression legislation, overturning women’s rights to legal abortions, and attacks on transgender rights, white supremacy is an undeniable existential threat to the nation. It is without a doubt that we all have a responsibility to be vocal about our apprehension.

Mel Wilson, LCSW, MBA, is the retired Senior Policy Advisor for the National Association of Social Workers. He continues to be active on a range social policy area including youth justice, immigration, criminal justice, and drug policy. He is a co-chairperson on the Justice Roundtable’s Drug Policy Reform Working Group.

Disclaimer: The National Association of Social Workers invites members to share their expertise and experiences through Member Voices. This blog was prepared by Mel Wilson in his personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the view of the National Association of Social Workers.

Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) on Dec. 16 announced they had reached a deal on a framework to reauthorize VAWA with key improvements and protections to better meet the needs of abuse survivors. They plan to introduce the bill this month. While they are finalizing the bill, they need our help to build support among Senators so they can introduce the bill with as many bipartisan sponsors as possible.

VAWA is a central way the Federal government responds to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. First signed into law in 1994, VAWA creates grant programs to provide services and housing to victims and survivors and training to improve the legal response to gender-based violence. The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022 is based on extensive work with survivors, direct service providers, and other stakeholders, and is the first reauthorization since the pandemic, which has exacerbated domestic violence and sexual assault.

VIRTUAL RALLY: Join the NTF, with VAWA lead Senators and international human rights and children’s rights advocate Angelina Jolie at 12:15 ET/9:15 PT HERE!

TWITTER STORM: Then, join the NTF at 1:00 ET/10:00 PT for a Twitter storm!

Urge Your Senators to Support VAWA

Our amicus brief discussed the important ways that gender bias by law enforcement, including reliance on harmful sex-based stereotypes, not only leads to failures in sexual assault investigations but also compounds the trauma of sexual assault survivors. The brief also presented social science research and legal precedents in support of the following issues:

• Explanation of the dynamics of sexual assault and how sexual assault survivors interact with law enforcement;
• Explanation of how the police department’s response to the client’s report of sexual assault – including bringing charges against the client for false reporting – reflects gender bias; and
• Explanation of how and why gender bias by law enforcement may harm survivors of sexual assault, the vast majority of whom are women, and thus violate the Equal Protection Clause.

Favorable decision: On October 4, 2021, the Second Circuit in its opinion, dismissed the defendants’ appeal for lack of jurisdiction and sent the case back to the trial court, allowing Chase’s remaining claims to continue forward. A copy of the amicus brief and opinion are attached and can be found on the LDF amicus brief database.

From the National Women’s Law Center

• NWLC Leads Amicus Brief in Support of Survivor Justice
• Twitter thread about the case

In October 1987, the first Domestic Violence Awareness month was observed. Two years later, Congress passed a law making it official.
Domestic Violence, a preventable, global and domestic public health problem, does not discriminate and impacts communities worldwide daily. Regardless of age, economic status, sexual orientation, race, nationality, or religion, domestic violence significantly affects individuals, families, and communities. Even though both men and women are victimized by domestic violence, women are more likely to experience serious physical, if not lethal violence, in their lifetime. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence,  someone is physically abused by an intimate partner every 20 minutes. This means that over 10 million people experience domestic violence each year. Over 85 percent of reported victims are women.
According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), nearly 20,000 phone calls are placed to domestic violence hotlines in the United States each day. This averages 13 calls every minute. Still, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), an important critical component of the federal response to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking has yet to be reauthorization. While VAWA provides critical protections to survivors of domestic violence across the country, domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking have decreased significantly, since 1994, when VAWA was first passed, yet rates of violence are still far too high.

In an interview with University of California, Davis, Clare Cannon, assistant professor of social and environmental justice in the Department of Human Ecology and the lead author of a new study on domestic violence said, “The pandemic, like other kinds of disasters, exacerbates the social and livelihood stresses and circumstances that we know lead to intimate partner violence.” According to the University, “increased social isolation during COVID-19 has created an environment where victims and aggressors, or potential aggressors in a relationship, cannot easily separate themselves from each other. The extra stress also can cause mental health issues, increasing individuals’ perceived stress and reactions to stress through violence and other means.

“Compounding these stressors, those fleeing abuse may not have a place to get away from abusive partners,” Cannon said.

According to data from NNEDV data:

• One in five women and one in 59 men are raped in their lifetimes
• One in four women and one in seven men experience severe physical abuse by an intimate partner in their lifetimes
• One in six women and one in 19 men experience stalking in their lifetimes
• A woman is murdered by a male intimate partner with a gun every sixteen hours

Domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking, disproportionately impact women and members of underserved communities.

In all, VAWA has ensured expanded criminal justice trainings and responsiveness, targeted culturally specific services, prevention education within educational institutions, and expanded protections for Native American women and protects diverse survivors, including LGBTQ persons, older adults, persons with disabilities, immigrants, and others.

VAWA is reauthorized every five years. These reauthorizations allow Congress to update the law to reflect best practices and to ensure VAWA is effectively meeting the needs of victims and survivors. VAWA has evolved significantly in the past quarter-century. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1620, The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021-2022 (VAWA), with significant bipartisan support. H.R.1620 is based on extensive outreach to direct service providers, other experts in the field, victims, survivors, and a variety of other stakeholders. In summary, H.R. 1620:

• Maintains vital protections for all survivors
• Invests in prevention
• Ensures victim service providers can use VAWA funding to help victims experiencing a range of domestic violence behaviors, not just physical abuse
• Ends impunity for non-Native perpetrators of sexual assault, child abuse co-occurring with domestic violence, stalking, sex trafficking, and assaults on tribal law enforcement officers on tribal lands
• Improves access to safe housing and economic independence
• Protects dating violence victims from abusers with firearms
• Improves the healthcare systems and workplace responses to the four crimes, and
• Improves enforcement of court-ordered firearm relinquishment

Now, is time for the Senate to introduce a companion bill to build on the Houses H.R. 1620 The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021-2022 (VAWA).

Social workers have been critical to responding to domestic violence. We provide supports at all levels of service for victims, families, and perpetrators, including direct support and services to survivors, case management and clinical services to children. We also collaborate with other professionals to ensure the safety and well-being of survivors and their children, engage perpetrators of abuse through evidence-based practices, provide information to organize, mobilize, and educate communities on this issue, craft and promote structural supports through needed policy advocacy and implementation, and conduct important research that informs the field. Social workers have long been important and critical voices in the fight to end domestic violence. As we pay particular attention to domestic violence each October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we challenge each social worker to continue to find ways that they can be impactful on this issue. We also bring attention to the critical role social workers play in stopping domestic violence and communities around the nation and around the world.

NASW is proud to be a key advisor to the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (NTF) and work in coalition with allies and partners to advocate for needed legislation, which maintains vital protections for vulnerable survivors, while making essential enhancements to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.

If you or someone  you know needs help, call the Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or Text 88788.

Resources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Futures Without Violence

National Network to End Domestic Violence

National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

National Center on Domestic Violence Trauma and Mental Health 

National Health Collaborative on Violence and Abuse

VHA Social Work Intimate Partner Violence Program

White Ribbon VA   

Our nation lost nearly 3,000 lives 20 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001.  As we remember the families, colleagues and communities most devastated by that deadly act of international terrorism on American soil, we also reflect on the series of tragedies that have shaped our world in the last two decades.

The horrific events of 9/11 forever changed most Americans’ assumptions about our country’s invulnerability, safety and security.  The tragedy of that day and so many other subsequent acts of violence – domestic and international – remind us how human rights threatened in one area of the world inevitably impact the global community.

We are all connected.

The National Association of Social Workers supports increased education and awareness of the dynamics of global migration and the implications of immigration and foreign policy for human rights, well-being, world peace and stability.  We also call on elected leaders to address persistent inequities within our own borders.

Following the end of the Afghanistan War on August 31, thousands of displaced Afghanis are now finding their way as refugees in America.  Social workers can support their successful integration into our communities with mental health counseling, access to healthcare and employment assistance.

Human rights are the essential qualities of life that must be valued and protected for all people everywhere.

The United States’ response to displacement resulting from human emergencies, conflicts and natural disasters can continue to be a rallying point and source of pride for future generations.  In an increasingly divided nation politically, the shared act of supporting and protecting fellow human beings can be an important way to show the world why democracy is worth fighting for.

Resources:

NASW Michigan – Resources for Veterans and Afghan Evacuees

When Their World Falls Apart: Helping Families and Children Manage the Effects of Disasters

9/11 Day

Give an Hour 9/11 Anniversary Tribute

StoryCorps Shorts: Father Mychal’s Blessing

StoryCorps Shorts: September 12