I was in my junior year of high-school when Sandy Hook happened. I was at a swim meet, when my coach and one of the captains burst into tears. “There was a shooting at an elementary school!” they shouted. It would later come out that 20 children and 6 staff members were murdered. Earlier that same year, just 40 miles away from my high school, the Aurora movie theater shooting happened where 12 people were murdered while watching the new Batman movie.
I remember thinking “maybe finally they will do something to change this from happening!” But after the usual bullshit of politicians sending their “thoughts and prayers”, nothing changed and the world had the audacity to keep turning.
What will it take for us to stop being okay with sacrificing our children at the altar of guns? What will it take for us to finally say “enough!” and do something about the ongoing problem that American society has with guns?
And now today, we once again face another tragedy of children dying at the hands of our failures to protect them. Children sitting in pews during mass, during their first week of school. They were literally praying while being shot. When will the cost be enough?
In moments like these, I often find myself struggling with what to do, what to say, or how to rage against this unjust and sick society. And here is the best I’ve got. And really, this comes from Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley.
For a world where children have to practice hiding under their desks.
Divine Protector,
Our world is plagued with unimaginable evil that destroys the most innocent among us. Make our anger loud. Never let us become comfortable with hearing that children have been sacrificed on the altars of our own distorted political agendas. Disrupt the politicization of mass murder and hold the enablers of school shootings to account. Make way for the emotional healing of victims, families, and all those who have been conditioned to expect horror. Cultivate communities who can untangle the distorted reality that white supremacy has instilled in its youth; a distortion that says it’s normal to brace for death so young, to know which desk to hide under. Guard the minds and hearts of children for whom safety is foreign, and remind us taht raising children is a communal responsibility. Their lives depend on not just our grief, but a righteous rage that leads to action. When we say “never again",” may we meant it. Amen.
