This morning I woke up to the sound of my 18 month old crying. I went through the motions of stumbling out of bed and getting him out of his crib (while I was still feeling half asleep), changing his diaper and feeding him breakfast. I mindlessly scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed and saw that there was a shooting at a college campus in the United States. ANOTHER shooting at a school (the second this week). This time it was at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. At first I was unfazed… then it hit me. It hit too close to home. Not just because I attended college in Arizona, but because I am a mother now and as I’m taking for granted the fact that my little boy wakes me up (too) early every single morning, another mother has lost her son to senseless violence.
When is it going to stop? Something’s gotta give. I am angry. I’m angry that it is becoming the norm to see a school shooting on the news. I’m angry that innocent lives are being lost. And I’m angry that I can’t send my child to school with 100% certainty that they are safe. I am sad. I’m sad that there are innocent lives being lost and I’m sad that the (somewhat sheltered) world I was raised in (in the 80’s and 90’s) is quickly changing.
I want my children to be raised in a world where it is safe for them to go to school. Where it is safe for them to go to a movie, to church or to the shopping mall. Where the worst thing that is going to happen to them is that they might fail their algebra test or skin their knee. Or they might be picked last for the dodgeball team at recess or have a broken heart.
I am not naïve enough to believe that they will never experience hurt or pain, or witness suffering and hatred. But as a parent I am doing my best to prepare them for the real world. And I want them to believe that the ‘real world’ is a good place… with good, well-intentioned people who have kind hearts, and that the bad apples are just the exception.
How can I teach them this when every week there is another mass shooting fueled by hatred. I have no control over the actions of other human beings. But I do have control over how I raise my own children and the example I set for them. It is my mission to instill in them respect (for themselves and for all living things), to teach them love (for themselves and for all living things), to teach them forgiveness (for themselves and for all living things) and to teach them that kindness trumps all. There will be people they meet in their life whom they may or may not see eye to eye with and who they flat out might dislike. And guess what?! That’s OKAY! The beauty of this world is that it’s big enough for all kinds of people and we aren’t going to like everybody we meet, but we should still treat them with kindness and we should still respect their right to live and be loved.
Gun violence is nothing new, but the frequency of it is. People will argue that guns don’t kill people… people kill people. People will throw out statistics that may or may not have merit, but those claims don’t change the fact that innocent lives, (sometimes children) are being shed for absolutely no reason. It’s time to stop arguing ‘pro’ gun or ‘anti’ gun and to become united in a mission to prevent the loss of defenseless, innocent lives. I am truly sick of feeling numb to something that is so tragic.
I can’t even grasp the pain that is endured by a mother who loses her child to a random or senseless act of violence. My heart goes out to anyone who has experienced this type of pain and my heart goes out to the mother(s) of the shooters. Because they, too, are losing their child to a random act of violence.
It’s got to stop… something’s gotta give.
