Back when we all had blogs, it used to be that if I had nothing worth saying, I would post a flurry of photographs to distract from my silence, a kind of pay-no-attention-to-that-man-behind-the-curtain trick.
how does this still continue to happen? how do these young future leaders, teachers, mums, dads, our future presidents, leaders, artists, doctors, call 911 from their classrooms over and over, and get no response? until it's way too late? how does a young girl know to cover herself with a classmates blood to feign death, to fool the gunman? why? why? why do these young children all across the country have to learn what to do if there is an "active shooter" on their school premises? remember when you went to school, you were taught what to do if there was a fire.... when I was in kindergarten in the early 60's, we had air raid drills, it was the time of the "Cold War", the drill was to get under our desk... I remember doing that, and I remember the air raid drill siren going off... it was planned, and when it was over, children returned to doing what children ought to be able to do... everyday without fear... play. run and jump and scream with joyous abandon, laugh until milk comes out of their nose, and then laugh themselves silly some more.Swing on the swings like there was no tomorrow. but sadly, for too many children, there will be no tomorrow, because there was no response to their desperate calls for help until it was way too late... and because since Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland and the list goes on.... nothing has changed, except for the death toll. How does this still continue to happen ?
As a white woman in her 60s, I feel (mostly) safe. As the great aunt of two toddlers, I worry for them and about them, as do their parents. I can only wonder what they will encounter as they grow up. The world is scary. It doesn't have to be.
Appreciate you writing this and connect deeply with your words and emotions. I am pissed, heartbroken, and feeling paralyzed. Appreciate reading the two articles you included.
Molly, thank you for your writing - all your writing, from Orangette to this. I have been thinking about this non-stop since the Uvalde shootings, and you have managed to articulate my thoughts so much better than I could have. I fortunately live in a country where something like this has never happened (and could never happen, because of our extremely strict and sensible gun laws) but my sister, primary school-going niece and baby nephew live in the USA and my blood freezes every time I hear news of a mass shooting until I see that it isn't in their state, or their county, or their town. Why are people not storming the streets in mass protest every time this happens? Why has it been allowed to happen more than once? I know all the reasons and excuses and none of them are good enough. It's incomprehensible.
Molly, thank you for lifting up Helen Anne Peterson’s essay. It’s truly the first thing I’ve read that gave my disaffection and alienation a coherency I could not. Grateful, as an older man, for the truth. Finally.
how does this still continue to happen? how do these young future leaders, teachers, mums, dads, our future presidents, leaders, artists, doctors, call 911 from their classrooms over and over, and get no response? until it's way too late? how does a young girl know to cover herself with a classmates blood to feign death, to fool the gunman? why? why? why do these young children all across the country have to learn what to do if there is an "active shooter" on their school premises? remember when you went to school, you were taught what to do if there was a fire.... when I was in kindergarten in the early 60's, we had air raid drills, it was the time of the "Cold War", the drill was to get under our desk... I remember doing that, and I remember the air raid drill siren going off... it was planned, and when it was over, children returned to doing what children ought to be able to do... everyday without fear... play. run and jump and scream with joyous abandon, laugh until milk comes out of their nose, and then laugh themselves silly some more.Swing on the swings like there was no tomorrow. but sadly, for too many children, there will be no tomorrow, because there was no response to their desperate calls for help until it was way too late... and because since Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland and the list goes on.... nothing has changed, except for the death toll. How does this still continue to happen ?
As a white woman in her 60s, I feel (mostly) safe. As the great aunt of two toddlers, I worry for them and about them, as do their parents. I can only wonder what they will encounter as they grow up. The world is scary. It doesn't have to be.
Molly, your writing has moved me over the years but this time, I’m moved to tears.
Appreciate you writing this and connect deeply with your words and emotions. I am pissed, heartbroken, and feeling paralyzed. Appreciate reading the two articles you included.
Molly, thank you for your writing - all your writing, from Orangette to this. I have been thinking about this non-stop since the Uvalde shootings, and you have managed to articulate my thoughts so much better than I could have. I fortunately live in a country where something like this has never happened (and could never happen, because of our extremely strict and sensible gun laws) but my sister, primary school-going niece and baby nephew live in the USA and my blood freezes every time I hear news of a mass shooting until I see that it isn't in their state, or their county, or their town. Why are people not storming the streets in mass protest every time this happens? Why has it been allowed to happen more than once? I know all the reasons and excuses and none of them are good enough. It's incomprehensible.
Molly, thank you for lifting up Helen Anne Peterson’s essay. It’s truly the first thing I’ve read that gave my disaffection and alienation a coherency I could not. Grateful, as an older man, for the truth. Finally.