#guns
BOOKS BEFORE GUNS
I pray every morning I’ll be blessed
I’m not yet…but I’m trying….
to understand when we ban books in schools
before we ban guns
Why we’re more afraid of our children learning
Than we are of our children dying.
STAND IN LINE
It’s been 26 years since that tragic day in Colorado…April 20, 1999
when 10 students and one teacher were killed in Columbine.
I remember most of us in the country with tears flowing at the time
assumed that things would change…that they’d be different…after Columbine.
But nothing was done…despite how the the fabric of our country shook…
and 12 years later, December 14, 2012
20 more children and 6 more adults were killed at a school in Sandy Hook.
Surely something will be done now we thought!
No government no country will sit back and watch their children die!
But again nothing was done and on February 14, 2018
17 more people were killed in Parkland, Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.
Still nothing was done to tackle this problem…to address why parents are afraid…
and 7 years later on August 27, 2020 n Minneapolis, Minnesota
2 more children killed and 18 injured…at a church while these children prayed.
We should have learned the lesson that the1999 mass shooting taught…
but it’s clear by offering only thoughts and prayers…we certainly did not…
Because today mass murders of our children and others persist…
and the Church of the Annunciation in Minnesota…is now added to the list.
Our government must be heartless to do nothing…as parents tearfully ask them why…
Why have you done nothing for 26 years except watch our children die?
Until our politicians open their hearts, their minds and have the courage to act
there will continue be more mass shootings like the one that began in Columbine.
And when grieving parents plead for help…
they will be met at the door with thoughts and prayers…then told to stand in line.
They will be lead to the back of a long, continuous, cross-country, never-ending line…
stretching all the back…26 years…to April 20, 1999.
UNDER DESKS OR ON ROLLER SKATES
I once had this idyllic picture of children…in school…learning with their mates
or outside playing together…running, jumping, laughing…riding on roller skates.
But that idyllic picture has changed…it’s not so idyllic anymore….
as we’re faced with another school shooting…and parts of the world at war.
In the midst of war…death comes quickly…lives are lost…hearts are broken
In the instant death arrives…there’s no time to think…no words are spoken.
I wonder in the moment the bomb explodes…dropped from high above
If the last thought of those who died…were of those in life they love.
In the midst of a school shooting…living out their most horrible fears
students of all ages take out their phones…and fighting back their tears
they call their parents and loved ones…”Dad, Mom…there’s something I want to say.
I just want you to know I love you…if I happen to die today”.
In Israel, in Gaza, in Ukraine, on our streets…wherever the fires of hatred flame
when it comes to the last words on our lips…all our messages are the same.
We want those we love to know we love them…one more time before we die…
so we repeat to them the words they said to us…
the moment we opened our eyes.
If we fear we’re going to die…and those we love and who love us can’t be near…
we want the words ‘I love you”…to be the last words from us…they hear.
Leaving us to mourn a world that callously drops bullets and bombs on us from above.
A world that allows the ruthless killing of the children we claim to love.
And to pray for the day love will prevail…and no more children will suffer the fate
of dying beneath their school desk…or while outside…wearing roller skates.