My Article of Response to An Elementary Shooting

            The people who walked in darkness, have seen a great light. Those who walked in the shadow of death, on them light has shined. What is the response to such a senseless tragedy? I included that passage from the Jewish Scriptures out of Isaiah as I am normally a writer for the faith section, but I think today we can unite not only as people of faith, but across faith-boundaries, across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic boundaries to pause for a moment to consider a tragedy that has struck our nation.

            There are times that are lives are shaken by the reality of the darkened world in which we live. We unite as a people under the banner of hope, a banner that hopes for a day where we will beat our swords (and guns) into plowshares, and our spears into pruning hooks. I write not under my normal banner of faith, because some people understandably don’t have faith at a time like this. The one thing that unites us as a community like Statesville, or Newtown is that we wake up the next day and do what needs to be done to take care of the children.

I’m reminded of a poem I read that goes like this, “It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.” Feeding the children, spiritually, emotionally, physically we must feed the least of these. We must wake up tomorrow and try to explain to the younger generation how someone could commit such a crime

The reality of life is that we will face death. Where is the hope in that? Today let me provide you with this answer. Today, if you have children, hug them, offer them hope, if you have grandchildren, offer them a kiss and a smile. If you have a next-door neighbor who is young go visit them and their family. Remember that our job today and in the days to come is not to rationalize the actions of mentally unstable person, but to do what it takes to change the world.

If you do go to a church or synagogue or mosque pray that peace might take its place at the table of our world. If you don’t go to a place of worship pause for a moment and hope for a better, more stable world. As we approach the Christmas holiday let us be mindful of those families in Newtown who will not have a Christmas that will ever be the same. In a town that is not much bigger than Statesville let us be thankful for the teachers in our communities, the children in our lives. Let us offer them hope; let us offer each other hope. Not a hope that will go away in a few weeks after this tragedy is committed to history. Let us show that today is the day we decided, that hope is real and peace is imperative.