Following yesterday’s horrific mass shooting in Nashville, I posted the following on Instagram:
“How has it gotten this dangerous
To be a child
In a desk
In a classroom?”
This might be reality, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
This is not okay.
This does not have to become our new normal.1
Nashville, we are with you.
America, has enough become enough yet?
Because, enough.
Enough.2
It wasn’t the most eloquent thing I’ve ever written, but it resonated with a lot of folks. To no one’s surprise, by the end of yesterday, the point of the post - that enough is enough - became sidelined due to vitriolic and hate-filled discourse on both sides of the divide.
Although I quickly put a stop to any hate targeted toward specific groups, namely the transgender community, at the time of publishing this has not stopped hate from being thrown across the aisle.
Instead, the comment section has stayed open. Which means that for many of the folks still engaged in shaming one another and placing blame for yesterday’s event, we’ve started to miss the point entirely.
The point, of course, is that this is not about the left and right, red and blue, Democrat and Republican. But this is about our children.
This is about protecting our children so that it is no longer dangerous to be a child in a desk in a classroom.
In the midst of our collective sadness and pain, uncertainty and fear, one thing remains: we want our children to be safe. We want them to come home and return to our arms at the end of the day, end of story.
We don’t want our babies to die.
So, where do we go from here? In the midst of this vitriol, I thought of Dr. King’s sermon on the Good Samaritan.3
In Luke 10,4 a priest and a Levite both walk by a man lying bloody and beaten on the side of the road. Although both of them are supposed to help him, they deny him help; it isn’t until the one least expected to help him, the one he may have least wanted help from, stops to help him that the parable delivers a gut-punch to its listeners. A great reversal of sorts happens and a story about loving our neighbor is made truer than ever.
Of this, King wrote:
“I imagine that the first question the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But by the very nature of his concern, the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
I don’t think it’s any different when it comes to curbing gun violence in our country — when it comes to keeping our children safe.
Perhaps we should stop asking ourselves, “If I put an end to gun violence in America today, what will happen to me?” and instead ask, “If I don’t put an end to gun violence in America today, what will happen to our children?”
It’s not about us, but it’s about them.
Our babies, our children.
Our everything.
In looking at my words today, I’d also probably exchange “be” for “become,” in the 7th and 9th lines.
“On Being a Good Neighbor”: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/draft-chapter-iii-being-good-neighbor
NRSV: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010%3A25-37&version=NRSVUE
With you, Cara. ❤️🩹