Nothing prepares you for the hate and carnage of the gunman last Sabbath in Pittsburgh.

Yet everything prepares you – family, friends, and faith.

I offered those thoughts to a friend who lost family there last week.

What can each of us do next?

We can respond – in ways best suited to who we are.

For most of us, that is personal. A kind word or some time spent with someone who is reviled by some because of who he or she is.

I will be at a community event today and Shabbat services tomorrow.

I will also be reintroducing House Bill 246, Hate Crimes – Threats and Penalties.

It would prohibit a person from threatening to commit certain hate crimes and authorize a court to require a person convicted of a hate crime to attend educational classes and perform community service as a condition of supervised release.

It passed the Senate last year but not the House.

I hope to bring together a diverse group of supporters.

And work on this bill with more passion than I did the last time.