Another school shooting this week. According to NPR, it’s the 27th time this year that a gunman opened fire on a school and killed people. Mass murdered them. Dead kids. And we don’t care.
That may sound harsh, but the sad reality of our national response shows it to be true. By refusing to address the issue of gun violence in any meaningful way, we’re saying that we’re ok with things as they are. We’re saying we don’t care about kids getting murdered at school. Or adults getting murdered in Buffalo. And the list goes on.
If we did, we would fix the problem. We would elect politicians who would at least recognize and address the issue.
But we don’t. Our inaction betrays us.
At the core of the issue is a governmental failure to help solve the problem- and that’s on us, the voters.
Why do we continue electing fierce partisans? Why is it nearly impossible for a mature, complex thinker and problem solver to win a campaign? Why is it unacceptable to support good ideas from the other side of the aisle?
We stack our government roster with politicians instead of public servants, people whose skills are better suited for the stage than the halls of Congress.
And we keep doing it. Nothing changes. More kids are killed. Adults too.
Our priorities are evident in who we elect.
We can cry, pray, and argue all we want as the next shooting approaches, but until our politics change, the message we’re sending is that the routine murder of school kids is somehow acceptable, and that we don’t care about dead kids.
I sure hope I’m wrong, but history is on my side.
For more stories, visit Todd’s blog at www.fiveoclockshadow.life