Announcement from ChiPy Board

Dear ChiPy Community,

We have decided to cancel tonight’s Algorithm SIG event. Apologies for the last-minute notice.

Why? The news of protests and unrest are inescapable. You may wonder why a Python user group is sending you a message about this. We are a collection of people just like you: we know that Black Lives Matter. We encourage you to learn more about this phrase and why it is important. This article by Rachel Cargle does a great job to start: Why You Need to Stop Saying “All Lives Matter”.

If you intended on participating in tonight’s Algorithm SIG, we encourage you to rechannel that energy:

  • Call your Alderman or other elected officials to speak out for justice, peace, and equality – lookup your representatives here: chicagoelections.gov/en/your-voter-information.html.
  • Support those in your community engaged in protest. This could mean just being a good friend as folks recover, or by providing resources to folks doing hard work at a hard time.
  • If you have the means, donate! If you don’t know where to start: My Block My Hood My City is a Chicago non-profit that promotes access and support for residents and businesses in Chicago’s southside neighborhoods. They currently have a recovery fund to support businesses affected by attacks from rioters. Learn more at formyblock.org.

For those wanting more context, we can try to provide some. In a previous correspondence we included the following statement:

At this time, our foremost concern is that all members of our community feel heard, supported, and are given the space to provide care and love to those around them.

We understand if you need to take a break right now.

Chicago Python will do our best to provide a space for our community to have shared experiences around the Python program language.

What we didn’t include was an acknowledgment that things change quickly. If that statement were true for any time period, it certainly feels true for the last three months. While we were able to have a successful WebDev / DevOps SIG on Tuesday night, the reality is that our hearts were elsewhere. We’ve decided that we also need a break right now.

We will be reviewing our upcoming events as we get closer and intend to give 48 hours notice of more cancellations. We promise to keep you informed as soon as we have news, but all of our volunteers are new to this as well. We appreciate your patience as we proceed.

– ChiPy Board