Yom Kippur

At sunset tonight the holiest of the Jewish Holidays begins. Yom Kippur is the time for introspection, to look back at the past year trying to right our wrongs and pledge that our actions will reflect our intentions to do good unto to others, to help our friends, neighbors and strangers and to make the world a better place for all of us to share.

We must rededicate ourselves and make a firm commitment to be sensitive to others' needs and feelings and to be kind to everyone.

It is a time to pray for the people who have died in the last year, and after seeing one of these deaths recently, I am compelled to speak the names of the people in the 20th Senate District who have died as a result of gun violence. By acknowledging their names, I hope to urge everyone to do more to fight this violence:

Damion Francis, 32
Robert Hinton, 28
Dupris Moore, 25
Dupree Dunbar, 47
Joseph Kennely, 44
Jerry Paterson, 39
Yingguan Chen, 68
Tyrone Batts, 25
Marlon Shuffler, 22
Cedric "Suave Bandz" McEaddy, 17
Sam Cosmore, 46
Unique Gilkes, 25
Andre Lane, 26
Dion James, 30
Qudus Shittu, 23
Tyreke Borel, 17
Tiarah Poyau, 22
Rysheen Ervin, 28

I want to thank the Gun Violence Archive and Matthieu Cornillon for the sacred duty of keeping track of the Brooklynites who have lost their lives this way.