Children Die and Parents Grieve, but Nothing Will Change
Gun deaths are one of many grave illnesses of the United States of America
“Republicans will decry the carnage. Then, their leaders will call for a moment of silence, and perhaps offer a prayer.” — The author
I shed private tears as my wife and I drove from Chicago, Illinois, on a ribbon of pavement between barren fields, to Ames, Iowa. It was the afternoon of May 24, 2022, and a radio reporter had just summarized the news from Uvalde, Texas. An eighteen-year-old high school student, Salvador Ramos, had gunned down 14 children and one teacher at Robb Elementary School.
Minutes later, my wife and I reunited with our son, a student at Iowa State University in Ames. I remember happy days, not long ago, when he was an innocent second, third, or fourth grade student, just like those at Robb Elementary. In those days, he marveled at the world and rejoiced with his friends and baseball teammates. He often declared, “I’m going to be a scientist of everything.”
In the morning following the initial report, the death toll in Uvalde had risen to 19 students and two adults. Try to imagine how the parents whose children died suffer the loss of their…
