12/14...

-


Yesterday, I get a text from Corey during the school day. He texted, "I am scared." Why? Because there was a kid at school who was accused of having a knife in his bag. This caused a big stir, naturally. Teachers were checking his bag. The school police officer was called. The kid was removed from the class and the class put on lockdown.

Thankfully, it was a false alarm, and the school did the right things. But as we sadly know in America, it easily could have been the real thing, and gone a very different way. And it could have been a gun instead of a knife.

Our kids know this. That is why Corey's text read, "I am scared." After all, they do lockdown drills in the case of an active shooter. Read that last sentence! Our kids practice going into lockdown in the case of an active shooter.

Seeing those words, "I am scared" - it immediately shook me. As a parent, like thousands of parents across the country, there is fear in me in sending my kid off to school. It is mostly unconscious. This morning, it was not. And then I remembered what day it was.

12/14... Nine years ago, in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, not far from here, 26 people, mostly 7 year-olds, were killed by a demented young man with an AR-15. Corey was 6 then. I am still dealing with the aftermath of that day.

Sadly, not much has changed, as Oxford, Michigan reminded us just a couple weeks ago. We still have school shootings. We still have young men with guns meant for the battlefield being wielded around like trophies in our neighborhoods. We still don't have universal background checks, the minimum that can be done and which the vast majority of Americans favor.

We are a nation that cries and hollers about a certain way of teaching the history of racism in this country. We are a nation that shouts about our kids having to wear masks in the middle of a global pandemic. We are a nation that loves a good culture war. And we are a nation that has among the poorest records of protecting our children, not even able to pass common sense gun laws, if only to show we give a damn. We are a nation that sees it kids having to do active shooter drills without a peep or protest from parents. Shame on us!

So, I will do my work and watch the time today, on pins and needles till the moment my son gets in my car and we drive home

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Music as a Metaphor for God

-
Image
So I have a friend, a dear friend in fact, someone I respect and admire. When the subject of religion comes up, he half-jokingly and half proudly will declare himself an agnostic when it comes to notions of God and atheist when it comes to organized religion. He points out regularly in these discussions how the Abrahamic view of God is faulty and even dangerous and how organized religion has hindered progress more than its helped. He is one of many and often has good points. The religion of Jesus, for example, often acts exactly the opposite as Jesus and to what he taught. Religion too often has become ideology and has been behind too many a conflict. It brings to mind that Gandhi quote that is quite common to hear. “I like Christ but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” At the same time, my friend loves music. This love reaches the level of the spiritual. It is sacred to him. Music provides him so much meaning, comfort, and joy. It is as esse
Read more

Mustard Seed Farming & a Country Made Whole

-
Image
Before I begin, I should let you know that in keeping with the theme of this service, I wrote this reflection in pencil on paper first. Wendell Berry is famous for eschewing computers for the primitive pencil and paper. Unlike Berry, however, I did not ask my wife Holly to type and print it out. There are some places to which I am not willing to follow even Wendell Berry. Also in keeping with the Wendell Berry theme, who is a Baptist, I will be using the traditional Baptist three-point sermon format that I heard growing up. Dylan had a guitar, three chords, and the truth. I have scripture, three points, and the truth. Now, I will say no need to fear hellfire and brimstone. This is a pretty interfaith and farmer-friendly sermon J Anyway, here we go. This morning’s scripture comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, vs. 31-32. I use the Douay-Rheims Translation: "Another parable he proposed unto them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, w
Read more

Temptations of the Church in the Wilderness

-
  The American church is in the throes of a wilderness experience. For Jesus, it was 40 days and 40 nights. For us, it is going on 30 years. Authors Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan Burge describe what this wilderness experience amounts to in their 2023 book The Great Dechurching . They write: The U.S. is currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country, as tens of millions of formerly regular Christian worshipers nationwide have decided they no longer desire to attend church at all. These are what we now call the dechurched. About 40 million adults in America today used to go to church but no longer do, which accounts for around 16 percent of our adult population. For the first time in the eight decades that Gallup has tracked American religious membership, more adults in the United States do not attend church than attend church. More people have left the church in the last twenty-five years than all the new people who became Christ
Read more