A US Senator stands with the families of the victims of yet another school shooting. He hugs the crying mothers, pats the young siblings on the head and acknowledges their grief as shared by the whole community. He places a firm hand on the shoulder of one of the fathers and squeezes giving him a little shake. Eyes serious, brow furrowed, a frown turning his lips down, he looks the grieving families in the eye and says, “The money I receive from the NRA is more valuable to me than the lives of your children.”
A group of young survivors stand in front of a podium shouting their rage and grief to the nation. Too young to yet vote, they process the aftermath of horror and terror the best they can. Turning to action to find meaning in dreadful loss, they turn to the public and their lawmakers looking for them to do something, anything to stop the madness. A governor is asked to respond. He rubs the back of his neck, eyes down, squinting in concentration. Then he looks up, eyes going straight into the camera and says, “The NRA has a scorecard they use to evaluate people like me. Every action I take regarding gun laws is taken into account. They send this scorecard to voters who are gun owners and members. Your right to learn in an environment free of murder and terror is meaningless to me in the face of that.”
They never come right out and say it. What they say instead is, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims during this difficult time.” But it means the same thing. Your ability to send your children to school where they can learn, and play, and fight and makeup with their friends, and then come home and over a meal tell you about their day without the words, “I had to walk past the bloody and broken remains of my classmates and teachers” does not matter to them. It doesn't matter to them that the trauma from these shootings ripples out like waves from a stone dropped in still water. The children who are murdered are only the beginning. Their devastated families only the most visible part of it. Let’s not forget the people who survived that brutal day. Or the parents who have to comfort a screaming child who woke in the middle of the night with memories of that time they had to hide in a closet while the RAT-TAT-TAT of a semi automatic rifle sounded just outside. Or the children a state away who drill over and over again what to do if and when an armed madman invades their school. Or the parents who drop their children off and have to say a prayer that they will come home safe that night.
It may have mattered to them at one time; they are human, after all. They have children too. But the sweaty, wadded up bits of cash flung at them from the gun lobby gave them a reason to stop caring. They know for whom they work, and it’s not you or me or Alyssa or Scott or Martin or Nicholas or Aaron or Jaime or Chris or Luke or Cara or Gina or Joaquin or Alaina or Meadow or Helena or Alex or Carmen or Peter.
It’s not the people who will be standing graveside on a warm, sunny Florida day staring at a coffin where there was once a teenager.
It’s not the young adults who will return to a classroom with empty seats where someone they knew once sat.
It’s not the teachers and staff who find themselves responsible not just for the education of those in their care, but also to prevent those young people from bleeding out on a cold, tile floor while a man with an assault rifle steps over them to reach his next target.
It’s not the first responders who walk through the aftermath, searching the carnage for those who can still be saved.
It’s not the public who watch in horror as children walk from their school with their hands up, so the police will know who not to shoot.
They don’t work for us.
They prove it every time they hold a moment of silence for gun victims and then work to pass a law that will spread concealed carry through the land like a virus. They prove it when they blame mental health issues and then vote to take away health care. They prove it when they continue to protect their leader, a man who stopped at the hospital on the way to a party to take a “thumbs up” picture with the people who were there that day. A leader who reversed the gun policies of his predecessor for no reason other than his own hatred for the man who held the office before him.
It’s been almost 18 years since a pair of students walked into Columbine High School and started shooting. It’s been a little over 5 years since a man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and murdered 20 babies. It’s been 3 days since we watched on live tv as police dealt with an active shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And still they say there is nothing that can be done. What will future historians have to say about a society that refused to act to protect its own children?
It’s time. It’s time to make an “A” rating from the NRA the albatross around the neck of any politician who earns it. Do you know the NRA rating of your Representative and Senators? Do you know how much money they’ve taken from the gun lobby? Find out. Then volunteer, donate, and vote accordingly.