We can do hard things

I’ve been vacillating between anger and sadness and frustration all day today. May 25, 2022. The day after a boy with an assault rifle and handguns, decked out in military garb, shot his grandmother, then walked into an elementary school and ended the lives of 18 beautiful ten  year old children and 2 of their dedicated teachers. 

This. Is. Bullshit.

Since Columbine, American citizens have been asking for “something'' to be done about the proliferation of guns. 

Since Columbine, the ban on assault weapons expired.

Since Columbine, the number of places where people have been murdered by assault weapons has skyrocketed.  No one is safe. Not really.  Because anyone can have a gun and anyone can lose their cool at any moment and in that nanosecond of frustration with their life, they can decide to grab at power and end the life of 20 people who were celebrating the end of the school year.

I keep thinking about those children and their teacher, when the boy barricaded himself in the classroom with them. What were they thinking? How scared were they at that moment knowing that they were not going to get another breath. Another day. A chance to tell their parents, their children, their family “I love you.” one last time. 

I keep thinking about the officers who tried to stop him but their bullets bounced off his military grade armor. Then, they watched him barricade himself in a classroom filled with children.

I keep thinking about the families. That sinking feeling when something is happening at school and you don’t know what it is. 

I keep thinking about the reunification center in this little Texas town where both the ultimate joy and the ultimate sadness intersect. How would it feel to get the best news of your life while your neighbor receives the worst news of theirs?

I keep thinking of those parents whose child was not at the reunification center. How did they react when the first responders could not let them see their child’s remains because the remains could not be identified without DNA.

What the fuck.

I can’t stop hugging my baby. Telling him I love him. Knowing in this world, each time he walks out the door, the chances of that being the last thing he hears from me is real. He’s a Black boy. He’s almost taller than I am. I am terrified. He made it home today which is so much more than those families can say. Oh my God. Lord. Have mercy.

But we can do hard things. We have before.

Abraham Lincoln freed millions of enslaved people with an Executive Order. At the time, there was not only zero political will to free them, the Southern states were engaged in active, bloody rebellion in order to keep Black people enslaved. The political divide could not have been more stark than in 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. Is today any different?

Today, like in the 1860s, there is no middle ground between the political parties. There is only stalemate. This stalemate is responsible for a cold civil war that is dripping in the blood of our children. Last night, President Biden shouted “Where is your backbone?” to Congressmen. 

Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Congress cannot get anything done. It is time for Executive Action.

Ban assault weapons - even the enslavers were compensated for their lost human property. 

Tax the fuck out of military hardware of all kinds - bullets, vest, weapons -  this shit does not belong in the hands of civilians. If you want to play war, join the military. The police are under armed. Get the shit that they are afraid of off the streets. Make owning that stuff a crime with severe monetary penalties… and make the penalties even steeper to the seller, the buyer and the manufacturer if the weapon is used in a mass shooting, or a domestic disturbance. 

Background checks have not worked. It is WAY PAST time to do something else.

If Abraham Lincoln can free millions of people with the stroke of a pen and have that be legally binding, Joe Biden can do the same. Free millions of people from fear of going to the gym, to the movies, to school, to the grocery store….

Executive order this shit. 

Establish your legacy as the place where the buck fucking stops.

We can do hard things, but only one person has the power to make it happen.

Please.