I feel such incredible despair about the state of gun violence in this country, the lack of change, how little we value life. I will find a way to be more active. For now I want to share "No Response" with you, a piece I wrote for NAILED magazine nearly ten years ago and am certain I've shared before. There have been too many opportunities not to do so. You can read "No Response" here and there is some except below.
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"I am meeting. The room is small, the table is covered with sweaty pitchers of cold water, and I am in a hotel at the end of a service road near O’Hare.
"The only reason this is important at all, is that I need to be back in my neighborhood by early afternoon. The boys have a show at school and I promised them that I will be there.
"So now I am off and I am full sprint, and rushing to the train and school, and in the act of doing so, I am ignoring the constant pings on my phone, the texts, Facebook messages, calls and emails, which are suddenly, and rapidly, coming in.
"When I make it to the auditorium, I slump into a chair, catch my breath, and finally look at my phone.
"There has been a mass shooting at an elementary school in Newton, Connecticut. Children Noah’s age have been killed. And their parents now have to face the reality that they will never see their children perform anywhere again, because they are never going see their children again.
"I try to ignore this and watch the boys perform.
"Debbie and I agree on the Sunday night following the show that as the boys still do not know about the shootings, we will have to talk to them before school the next day since someone will certainly mention it.
“I need to talk to you guys about something that happened on Friday,” I say as we walk to school on Monday morning."
