It Has To Stop

I’m having trouble finding the words. But I have to try.

I did not want to drop my son off at school today. I wanted to keep him home, keep him safe.

I can’t begin to express the anger, the sadness, the horror, the despair I feel at the shooting in Texas yesterday. These were kids, 8-10 years old. They had their whole lives ahead of them. They have moms and dads, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, who will now have an unfillable hole in their heart, as long as they live. They have classmates and friends who should be thinking about learning to read, learning to write, learning math, deciding how to spend their recess. Instead, they are traumatized, afraid, saddened at the shooting and loss, marked by trauma perhaps for the rest of their lives.

I believe in the power of prayer, but it isn’t enough. Thoughts and prayers are nice and all, but they aren’t solving the problem.

People are getting shot in grocery stores, theaters, school, concerts, nightclubs. No place is safe. It is just a matter of time before each one of us is in some way or another involved in a mass shooting. It’s time. It’s past time.

I don’t think there is one simple solution, but we can’t let that stop us from trying something. Let’s start by looking at the easy availability of guns that are used to easily kill many people in quick succession. Is it really necessary to have those in the possession of the average human being? Can we look at balancing the desire to own a gun with the thought that killing a bunch of kids in a classroom shouldn’t be that easy? Why are the guns, all the guns, more important than the lives of our children? Is trying to prove that you are right so critical, that political posturing overshadows the actual issue? We as a country have lost sight of our priorities when we can’t sit down as civilized, rational human beings and come up with a list, even just 5 things, that we could agree to try to keep people from being able to walk into an elementary school and shoot at will.

Let’s look at gun control. Not banning guns altogether, maybe just universal background checks. Let’s look at the types of guns and ammunition that are readily available. Let’s look at our mental health system and see if something can be done there. Let’s look at the isolated kids, the ones getting bullied, the friendless. Let’s see if we can help them. Let’s find people who have had these violent thoughts and talk to them, see what got them to that point. Let’s remember that part of talking is listening to what they have to say.

These kids are the most innocent of our society. They deserve our protection. They deserve to be kept safe. They deserve to grow up. These children, these victims, don’t get that chance. It’s a tragedy, a travesty. It’s wrong.

We elect our government to be our voice, to preserve what works and fix the things that don’t work. There is quite a bit of gray area there, depending on which side of the aisle you sit on. Right now, it is the government that isn’t working, congress that isn’t getting things done. I keep hearing “No, that’s not the answer” without getting any suggestions about what the actual answer might be. What is not a gray area is the fact that children should be able to go to school without the fear, when they get out of the car or off the bus in the morning, that this time might be the last time they see their parents. Ever. And if Congress as it is right now is unable to fix that, maybe it is time for a change.

Write to your Representative. Write to your Senators. Write to them all. We need to be heard.

Kathie