A Day of Remembrance
I am numb. It was just last Tuesday, May 24, 2022, that all hell broke loose in a small town in Texas. A town unknown to me, and I suspect to most of us, but now forever imprinted on our collective national soul.
A town, like so many small towns in America, that struggles with what it means to be a democracy — politics, religion, balancing budgets, climate — and still speaks with pride about being a community. A town now in mourning over the slaughter of its children who did what they had been trained to do when someone with a gun comes to school.
The List Continues to Grow
Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is now but one of over 240 schools in this country where children have been slaughtered at the hands of persons who obtained guns and ammunition because of 27 words added to our Constitution in December 15, 1791.
As a nation, we have had 245 opportunities to address this issue and take steps to stop the slaughter of children who are in loco parentis. We have failed miserably.
“I’m sorry. . .”
I am taking this opportunity from the pulpit of this blog, to apologize to the community of Uvalde and all the other communities where this carnage has occurred, for failing to do more to limit the sale and production of semi-automatic rifles. Where did an 18-year-old come up with $1,870.00 (cost of the rifle on line) and somewhere around $850.00 for the ammo?
I ask your forgiveness for not being more persistent in challenging the misleading tropes intentionally released like decoy flares to distract us from the intensity and reality of the loss. Not merely the loss of life, but the loss of a sense of safety and trust that the community can protect itself.
The hollow and unsupported bullet points that these murders are attributable to a broader breakdown in society caused by the removal of God from public schools, the decline of two-parent households, a perceived leniency toward criminals, social media and an increase in mental illness, no longer can be permitted to explain away the underlying causal reality that without access to these weapons of war, the total numbers of casualties would have been much, much lower.
What Can I Do?
Depending on your assets (money, time, spheres of influence), you can do and or all of the following:
- Vote
- Contact your elected officials and let them know your thoughts.
- Write to the NRA and state your position.
- Connect with local groups and develop plans to keep these weapons of war out of your community.
- Support candidates who want common-sense gun regulation.
- Strengthen community in every way you can. (See the forgiveness project for resources)
- Don’t give up.
In Memoriam to our children who didn’t come home from school.
Thurston High School.
Columbine High School.
Heritage High School.
Deming Middle School.
Fort Gibson Middle School.
Buell Elementary School.
Lake Worth Middle School.
University of Arkansas.
Junipero Serra High School.
Santana High School.
Bishop Neumann High School.
Pacific Lutheran University.
Granite Hills High School.
Lew Wallace High School.
Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.
Appalachian School of Law.
Washington High School.
Conception Abbey.
Benjamin Tasker Middle School.
University of Arizona.
Lincoln High School.
John McDonogh High School.
Red Lion Area Junior High School.
Case Western Reserve University.
Rocori High School.
Ballou High School.
Randallstown High School.
Bowen High School.
Red Lake Senior High School.
Harlan Community Academy High School.
Campbell County High School.
Milwee Middle School.
Roseburg High School.
Pine Middle School.
Essex Elementary School.
Duquesne University.
Platte Canyon High School.
Weston High School.
West Nickel Mines School.
Joplin Memorial Middle School.
Henry Foss High School.
Compton Centennial High School.
Virginia Tech.
Success Tech Academy.
Miami Carol City Senior High School.
Hamilton High School.
Louisiana Technical College.
Mitchell High School.
E.O. Green Junior High School.
Northern Illinois University.
Lakota Middle School.
Knoxville Central High School.
Willoughby South High School.
Henry Ford High School.
University of Central Arkansas.
Dillard High School.
Dunbar High School.
Hampton University.
Harvard College.
Larose-Cut Off Middle School.
International Studies Academy.
Skyline College.
Discovery Middle School.
University of Alabama.
DeKalb School.
Deer Creek Middle School.
Ohio State University.
Mumford High School.
University of Texas.
Kelly Elementary School.
Marinette High School.
Aurora Central High School.
Millard South High School.
Martinsville West Middle School.
Worthing High School.
Millard South High School.
Highlands Intermediate School.
Cape Fear High School.
Chardon High School.
Episcopal School of Jacksonville.
Oikos University.
Hamilton High School.
Perry Hall School.
Normal Community High School.
University of South Alabama.
Banner Academy South.
University of Southern California.
Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Apostolic Revival Center Christian School.
Taft Union High School.
Osborn High School.
Stevens Institute of Business and Arts.
Hazard Community and Technical College.
Chicago State University.
Lone Star College-North.
Cesar Chavez High School.
Price Middle School.
University of Central Florida.
New River Community College.
Grambling State University.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School.
Ronald E. McNair Discovery Academy.
North Panola High School.
Carver High School.
Agape Christian Academy.
Sparks Middle School.
North Carolina A&T State University.
Stephenson High School.
Brashear High School.
West Orange High School.
Arapahoe High School.
Edison High School.
Liberty Technology Magnet High School.
Hillhouse High School.
Berrendo Middle School.
Purdue University.
South Carolina State University.
Los Angeles Valley College.
Charles F. Brush High School.
University of Southern California.
Georgia Regents University.
Academy of Knowledge Preschool.
Benjamin Banneker High School.
D. H. Conley High School.
East English Village Preparatory Academy.
Paine College.
Georgia Gwinnett College.
John F. Kennedy High School.
Seattle Pacific University.
Reynolds High School.
Indiana State University.
Albemarle High School.
Fern Creek Traditional High School.
Langston Hughes High School.
Marysville Pilchuck High School.
Florida State University.
Miami Carol City High School.
Rogers State University.
Rosemary Anderson High School.
Wisconsin Lutheran High School.
Frederick High School.
Tenaya Middle School.
Bethune-Cookman University.
Pershing Elementary School.
Wayne Community College.
J.B. Martin Middle School.
Southwestern Classical Academy.
Savannah State University.
Harrisburg High School.
Umpqua Community College.
Northern Arizona University.
Texas Southern University.
Tennessee State University.
Winston-Salem State University.
Mojave High School.
Lawrence Central High School.
Franklin High School.
Muskegon Heights High School.
Independence High School.
Madison High School.
Antigo High School.
University of California-Los Angeles.
Jeremiah Burke High School.
Alpine High School.
Townville Elementary School.
Vigor High School.
Linden McKinley STEM Academy.
June Jordan High School for Equity.
Union Middle School.
Mueller Park Junior High School.
West Liberty-Salem High School.
University of Washington.
King City High School.
North Park Elementary School.
North Lake College.
Freeman High School.
Mattoon High School.
Rancho Tehama Elementary School.
Aztec High School.
Wake Forest University.
Italy High School.
NET Charter High School.
Marshall County High School.
Sal Castro Middle School.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Great Mills High School
Central Michigan University
Huffman High School
Frederick Douglass High School
Forest High School
Highland High School
Dixon High School
Santa Fe High School
Noblesville West Middle School
University of North Carolina Charlotte
STEM School Highlands Ranch
Edgewood High School
Palm Beach Central High School
Providence Career & Technical Academy
Fairley High School (school bus)
Canyon Springs High School
Dennis Intermediate School
Florida International University
Central Elementary School
Cascade Middle School
Davidson High School
Prairie View A & M University
Altascocita High School
Central Academy of Excellence
Cleveland High School
Robert E. Lee High School
Cheyenne South High School
Grambling State University
Blountsville Elementary School
Holmes County, Mississippi (school bus)
Prescott High School
College of the Mainland
Wynbrooke Elementary School
UNC Charlotte
Riverview Florida (school bus)
Second Chance High School
Carman-Ainsworth High School
Williwaw Elementary School
Monroe Clark Middle School
Central Catholic High School
Jeanette High School
Eastern Hills High School
DeAnza High School
Ridgway High School
Reginald F. Lewis High School
Saugus High School
Pleasantville High School
Waukesha South High School
Oshkosh High School
Catholic Academy of New Haven
Bellaire High School
North Crowley High School
McAuliffe Elementary School
South Oak Cliff High School
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Sonora High School
Western Illinois University
Oxford High School Robb Elementary School
3 responses to “Memorial Day, 2022”
I bow down. Thank you for the wods.
Mary, what a powerful, heart-rending . . . and infuriating piece. Thank you.
A (likely small) minority of gun-owners ARE healthy, mature, rural hunters. Those exist in every country; in France there is even a national “Syndicat [union] des chasseurs.”
However, the USA’s “wild-west,” macho, xenophobic history has produced a culture whose widespread paranoia gets expressed via violent aggression, and rationalized as “individual freedom” (the freedom to crazily murder others).
THAT widespread mental disorder (American Armed Paranoia) has been an absolute breeze to exploit by weapons manufacturers who themselves exhibit the OTHER Great American malady: the besotted worship of money, gained by any means possible. Sadly, I doubt that “writing to” such mentally disturbed entities or to their equally soulless, purchased politicians will have much impact.
Memorial day is no longer just for our dead soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and guardsmen and women – coast guardsmen and women. Memorial day is also for our children and citizen who have lost their lives to inadequate political will to change the gun laws in service to NRA $$$$. This is not a “Happy” holiday . . . it becomes more and more somber the older I get. Mary, thank you for the list reminding us of our responsibility and lack thereof.