“Pittsburgh: This Is Not Who We Are” by Annika Urban tells the story of how mass shootings like the Parkland shooting and the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, which happened in her own community, turned her into a political activist. Urban talks about the time she set up an interview with her senator and published it. She began to volunteer for congressional campaigns, read books and asked questions, yet hate continued to spread, and eventually, it reached her community. On October 27, 11 people were shot and killed in her home, Squirrel Hill, because a man had anti-semitic views. This incident bought Urban to become stronger in her activist ways and realizes how different her community may become. She questions how others may view her now that her community has faced a mass shooting. In this heartbreaking piece, Annika Urban discusses the perils of hate and what it can do to a seemingly normal neighborhood.

On the day I heard about the shooting, I was on my school bus on my way to school. The sun was peeking out from the buildings and my head lay against my bookbag in an attempt to catch some sleep. The news was blaring as usual, and as I listened to the radio guy explain what had happened in the Pittsburgh shooting, my heart dropped. I wanted to scream “NOT AGAIN,” but I knew my fellow bus riders would complain about my loudness. I looked over at the boy sitting across from me, and he too had a sullen face. Perhaps it is the sudden hate going around or my growing maturity, but I have also been interested in being an activist and providing a voice. In an age where, as Urban describes it, a “Cingere” (a Latin word that means when an army surrounds another army and closes in) on gun violence is happening, I would like to remind others, as Martin Luther King Jr said, “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” So thank you Annika Urban for sharing your story and inspiring young people like me, to go out and share my voice.