To Whom It Should Definitely Concern (rough edit)

To Whom It Should Definitely Concern,

As I sit down not even 48 hours after the deadliest mass shooting in United States history - I’m honestly just baffled. I’ve lived through several of the deadliest as the violence only seems to increase in months to come.  I could try and make sense of everything by looking to facts, data, and charts.  Those numbers won’t ever make sense of this mess. When I look at other numbers, the numbers that really matter, these numbers start to blur together too: ages, number of children, minutes of gunfire, shots fired, those injured, those killed or more honestly put, murdered. These numbers only get me so far in really understanding. If anything I think that we must break it down as simply as possible.

It’s sometimes really quite difficult to be the nice guy. Loving hate away, praying hate away, peaceful protesting things away just isn’t working for this topic. Those ideals should be the foundation of the work but we have to do something else. While I’m not recommending hate or violence I am recommending that we get pissed (and rightfully so). I honestly don’t care one bit about how deep the pockets of the NRA are or how entwined that is to so many avenues of our life. I don’t want any part of it. I don’t ever want to say that the benefits of a nasty dollar are worth more than an innocent life. Perhaps we are too focused on an enemy far away, all the while we haven’t looked around our streets or in the mirror. Real problems are right before us and must be fixed just as urgently.

When we put it most simply most of us have been echoing the same thing all along. Lives matter more than money.

I teach fourth grade so I was trying to think of the most basic playground situation to compare this to. With so many arguments and discussions I think at the heart of it we are losing the most basic and true facts of the situation. I would hope if a student walked up to another student and offered them money to look away, that they wouldn’t be able to do it. They wouldn’t let them attack an innocent friend. They wouldn’t let them throw a series of rocks at their classmates across the field.  They wouldn’t hand them the rocks that would do the most damage. They wouldn’t let others get hurt. I would hope that the values I instill as a teacher would make that child brave and firm in what they believe.  I would hope that the child would see past the bribe and realize they needed to do the right thing, stand up.I think somehow adults have gotten it confused.

We’ve put a price on the value of a life. Somehow those throwing out the bids aren’t even the ones who may lose the life.  They are bidding on us and ignoring our voice. They can make decisions behind a desk or over the phone with the National Rifle Association but they aren’t your lives to gamble with. Get a grip.  Your methods are obviously failing. Turn on the news, look at the numbers if you must, you are losing. You are making America lose. There is no amount of money that can replace a child for a parent, a husband for a wife, or a best-friend to a young woman. These things aren’t replaceable because they are what really matters. Most simply put they are all that truly matters.

There will always be hurting people but we are enabling them to do more damage than ever. We are handing them the sharpest rock on the playground.

We are a country that is a amazing and proactive in some aspects. Gosh, when these things happen we really do have heros and helpers. We have people who sacrifice and save. All of that is great and so, so deeply appreciated. I just wish those heroes didn’t have to be forced into those situations. I wish they didn’t have to risk it all because we as a country are losing.

We need to get over the fact that were great or are great and start to realize our flaws. Our very present flaws. We don’t need to put some glossy bandaid over them and pretend they don’t exist. We are broken and we need to heal. We need to look at other countries who are successful with protection and guns. We need to look at countries who build a community that truly values their neighbor.  We need our representatives to admit that they have failed us and realize there is grace in breaking and learning. There is grace in admitting you’re wrong.  There is grace in asking for directions.  There is only shame to follow if we turn a blind eye and make the same mistakes over and over again.  There is only shame if we pretend to be strong when right now, we are losing. There is only shame in acting like you have all the answers when you don’t have the damndest clue.

I’m not afraid to ask: how do we make a change?

Sincerely,

The Definitely Concerned