We see you. We hear you.

Our communities are aching. As an organization that has spent decades promoting diversity, inclusion and community engagement, we cannot be passive or silent about it. We all have a responsibility to participate in seeking solutions.

We know that a systemic cycle of inequality and injustice disproportionately affects our black and brown members, co-workers, neighbors, family and friends. Racial disparities have sown fear and anger through our country and in our own communities for centuries. The most recent stories and videos of Ahmaud Arbery, Christian Cooper and George Floyd offer new examples of age-old brutality. While they're shocking and disturbing for all, they are more traumatic and more personal for some. Please take time to check in on each other, especially those you know to be more personally or directly impacted by these events. Pause to listen and learn from each other. While it's a seemingly small act, reaching out is vital to healing the division that these events create. It's something we can all do individually.

There's also more we can do together. As an organization, Veridian Credit Union stands with those who are working and sacrificing for peaceful solutions to centuries of inequity. We stand with peaceful protesters who demonstrate the need for civil participation in change. We stand with police officers who understand the unrest and still accept a selfless duty made more difficult and dangerous by abuses of power that are not of their own doing. And we stand with local organizations who are doing the daily, strategic work to adjust imbalances in American liberty.

We will only ever be as great as we are diverse, inclusive, equal and just. These achievements cannot be left only to those who are most directly affected. It will require all of us. We've reached out to the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP to expand our financial support with a donation, and we will continue to seek opportunities to be part of the solution.