Children Die and Parents Grieve, but Nothing Will Change
Gun deaths are one of many grave illnesses of the United States of America
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“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 tender loved ones. A parent can experience no harsher terror. Try to imagine how the spouses, parents, siblings, and friends of the deceased adults are grieving.
The survivors will never hug, kiss, see, rejoice with, laugh with, or talk with their loved ones or friends again. Imagine how their memories of joy intermingle with the pain, suffering, and mourning that follow tragic and early deaths. Imagine the tears, wailing, and lost will to live today in Uvalde and beyond.
Little or nothing will change.
Democrats have started to publicly decry the carnage. U.S. President Joe Biden asked, “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” and “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?”
Just ten days before the shootings at Robb Elementary School, a hate-filled 18-year-old gunman massacred ten people in a grocery store in Buffalo, New…
