Yes We Can

Trigger alert - this is something on the minds of so many people in our country.

If you are not from the United States, you may well be looking at us here in horror.

Hint:  this post is not about crocuses.  I just wanted to provide a spot of beauty before I begin my tale.

I had lunch yesterday with some work friends, including a work friend who is retired.  We try to have lunch once a month, At work, I sat mere feet away from the retired friend. We've known each other for years. 

After lunch, when our other lunch companions had to return to work, we sat in her car a while and talked.

She's a grandmother of several. (I am not a grandmother - yet, anyway).  Her youngest grand lives just a couple of miles from her and she sees him a couple of times a week. 

My friend was telling me about the recent lockdown at her grand's elementary school.  The school had received a threat and the lockdown was a precaution.

We've gotten really good at lockdowns in our United States.

Her grandson explained about the lockdown matter of factly.  "We were told to sit in our cubbies", he explained.  "Our teacher gave us cookies and a book".

Like others his age and beyond, he's already been through active shooter drills.

We baby boomers may have thought our duck and cover drills were bad, but, on the other hand, we didn't live with news about the most recent atomic bombing on the evening news.

Her grandson's teacher says that many of the children in his class are behind where they should be now, emotionally.   The pandemic may have had something to do about it - but.

But.

What kind of country are we if we can't fight for the lives and the emotional health of our children and grandchildren?  The number one cause of mortality in children and teens in the United States is - guns.

This week, it was the turn of Nashville, Tennessee, a state where gun laws were recently loosened (and they want to loosen them even more).  Next week, we, where I live, will commemorate the April 3, 2009 mass shooting in an adult classroom which took the lives of 14.

Yes, it's true that not all mass casualty events are caused by guns.  Some use cars.  Some use other weapons. 

But guns hold a special place in the hearts of enough people in this country that we lack the will to take any kind of measures to try to fight what is happening.  

Mental illness a cause?  Yes, but not just from people pondering that act.  The number of people in this country traumatized by each event is growing by the day.  Some people, now, are survivors of more than one mass shooting.  Sooner or later we will have a Congressman, or even a Presidential candidate who survived one.

We as a country are split about what to do.  Families (including mine) are split, too. 

So why am I writing this post?  Because I heard a Tennessee politician say, yesterday (paraphrasing) that there isn't not a whole lot we can do about the (Nashville) school shooting.  Let's think about that.

If it's mental illness causing all of this, our country's track record supporting those with mental illness and their families is abymsal.  But we do nothing about it.

If our enemy is evil, why would we sit back and accept the victory of evil over good?  Do we want to live in such a world?  Obviously, some people do.

Our children and grandchildren are looking to us.  We can not expect the generation now reaching maturity to do our work for us.  I know I haven't done enough.  

Can we turn this around?  Yes, we can.  But only if we really, in our hearts, want to.

Do we?