I’m going to depart a bit from my normal point of view, because recent events warrant it, Last week, a lone gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and brutally murdered 19 children and two adults. It’s not the first such event – far from it. In just the first five months of 2022, there were 30 shooting death incidents in K-12 schools in the United States.
At church yesterday, they posted a version of this photo. I looked at it for a moment, trying to make sense of it. Then I counted the chairs – nineteen little ones, and two larger seats, all of them forevermore empty.
And then I wept.
We are held hostage in this country by the gun lobby and the politicians who support it, blocked from doing anything at all to prevent such horrific, needless deaths. We’re told it’s too soon. That we are “politicizing the deaths.” That guns don’t kill people – people kill people. So why did this person have two assault rifles to do that with?
A change has gotta come.
I know this isn’t my usual upbeat fare – my weekly writing column or life encouragement that I try to bring my readers every week. But this massacre damned near broke my heart.
No more thoughts and prayers. No more inaction. No more letting the gun lobby set the agenda.
We have to wake up and stand up and shout until we’re blue in the face. “No more!”
And then we have to fight to do something about it.
If you have children, no matter how young or old, tell them you love them. Then find out where your local representative stands on gun control, and if they tell you you’re “politicizing the tragedy,” tell them “You’re damned right I am” and vote them out of office.
A change has gotta come.