They say, “It’s too soon! We shouldn’t be politicizing this while family and loved ones are still mourning those who were killed. Offer your thoughts and prayers!”
We have been saying that since at least 1999 (Columbine) or maybe it was 2012 (Sandy Hook).
But in the past month there have been 45 mass shootings. Process that for just a second because if you process it much longer that number is going to change. We have experienced more mass shootings in the past month that there have been days in the month. And I can’t even say if, given the shootings in Omaha, Kenosha, and now Austin, that number is an accurate figure.
But all we get from these events are “Thoughts and Prayers.” I have ‘friends’ (and family) who say that we need to pray for changed hearts; “If we just get more people to follow God in their hearts we wont need gun laws.”
All I can say right now is that even the anthropomorphized Thoughts and Prayers is asking for a reprieve. It’s screaming from the engine room, “I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain! I canna give her no more!”
So let’s just not, okay?
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, on Twitter, wrote:
Let us beat them into art.
Let us beat all the guns into plowshares.
Let us forge them into parts for the new city transit system.
Let them be used to build, to feed, to nurture, to nourish.
Not this. Not this. Not what we have now. Not this.”
(@TheRaDR 12:42 PM · Apr 18, 2021)
I’m not that eloquent. Maybe it’s because I’m angry. Shouldn’t all of us be angry right now? And not because “the Libs want to take your guns” (and don’t get me wrong, THIS Lib wants to take your guns; I’m done; I’m over it.) We should be angry because our refusal to do anything to alter the status quo means that we are willing to accept the cost of life after life after life after life after life after life after life….(how much longer should I go on?)
That’s what we are saying with our refusal to change. Human life has zero meaning. None. Nada. Zilch. Not compared to the intrinsic value of some folks’ Second Amendment Rights.
There are no good guys with guns. There are only angry people with guns taking it out on other people with those guns, or fearful people posturing with their guns who are really just on the brink of becoming an angry person with a gun taking it out on innocent people.
There is no other problem in our country that we believe can be solved with Thoughts and Prayers.
We cannot wait until the pain of the tragedy passes
because it is unrelenting
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