Great people make great towns. Great towns make great people. Love in action. Action in love.

Love. Out. Loud.

Charlottesville, Virginia. Have you been there? It is quite beautiful. Elegant. Epic. It is home to some amazing people. It is home to some amazing scholars. It is home to some amazing athletes. It is an amazing town.

Charlottesville is now a hashtag. Not for the million reasons the people of Charlottesville would choose. Or even have nightmares about. It is home to the University of Virginia. Picturesque, a home to scholars and thinkers, writers and readers, creators and innovators, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders, Presidents and Generals. It is awe inspiring from inside and out.

Charlottesville is now a hashtag. For reasons hard to fathom, almost as hard to accept, and unbelievably painful. It is now the talking point for extremes, the pathway for horrible decisions, and a reminder of what was, what is, and what simply can not be.

Charlottesville is lovely. It is loving. It is powerful. It is brilliant. It is all of ours.

Charlottesville is bruised. It is in pain. It is standing in the mirror evaluating its good. And bad.

Charlottesville will now take that look and make a decision. Who is it?

Is it this? Or that? Is it going to reclaim its own name? Is it going to say who it is loudly? Will it go silent?

My thought is that Charlottesville will stand, straighten its back, stick its chest out, and hold its head high.

My thought is that Charlottesville will proudly proclaim that it is what we who know Charlottesville already know.

Charlottesville is love. And, loved.

Charlottesville is be love in action. Charlottesville will action in love.

Charlottesville will love out loud.

That is who Charlottesville is.

Love, and loved.

We are Charlottesville.