The American [Pipe] Dream?
Ineloquent thoughts about Covenant School in Nashville
Sometimes I feel like I’m losing my mind. I’ve been trying to come up with something coherent to say about the most recent school shooting that occurred down the road from me in Nashville on Monday. So please forgive my lack of eloquence in trying to relay my thoughts. Maybe you can relate to my ramblings…
What can I say that’s not already been said? Probably nothing. My anger and despair boil over when I think about this country and how we allow our children to be murdered over and over again. I’ve been thinking about the victims every day this week and the people still here who must navigate a world without them and somehow cope with the trauma of what they’ve experienced.
On Monday morning, I began getting notifications on my phone that there was an “active aggressor” at a school in Nashville. I was pretty sure what that meant and that local news stations or the Metro Nashville Police Department were downplaying it. Later, confirmation came through that it was a school shooting. A 28-year-old former student, armed with two assault weapons and a handgun, entered Covenant School, a private school in Green Hills, and began shooting. By the time the police executed the shooter, six people were killed.
Evelyn Dieckhaus, age 9, Third Grader
Hallie Scruggs, age 9, Third Grader
William Kinney, age 9, Third Grader
Mike Hill, age 61, Custodian
Katherine Koonce, age 60, Head of School
Cynthia Peak, age 61, Substitute Teacher
What angers me the most, I think, is that tragedies like this that happen so often in this country, and only this country, are mostly preventable. But it doesn’t have to be this way. “Land of the free?” Nope, not this country.
It’s sickening. Many people in power don’t care that kids are being murdered daily because some people with guns should not have them. Many people care more about their “right” to have guns than the right of our kids to live their lives. It’s infuriating.
In 2021, Tennessee passed a law to allow permit-less carry, and there’s another bill circulating to lower the minimum age to purchase firearms to eighteen.
Various people in power in many states are paid well to remain loyal to the gun lobby and the NRA. They choose to ignore data that proves that the majority of Americans are in favor of common-sense gun laws, and some of them even mock our dead, wearing assault weapon pins on their lapel in place of an American flag. They line their pockets with the blood of dead children, and they have no regrets. Instead, they add salt to the nation’s wounds and pain to the trauma families experience post-massacre by uttering useless words like “thoughts and prayers” to placate the masses. As a result, our schools are crime scenes, and children’s bodies are left lifeless, scattered in bloody messes on cheap, mass-market tiled floors.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine seeing those small bodies lying in the unnatural pose where they fell when the bullet(s) entered their body and their soul exited?
What are we to do, the parents and communities robbed of the love and light we lose when our kids are stolen from us?
Gun control advocates and organizers around this country tirelessly work to raise awareness and pass sensible gun laws. We can become engaged with organizations rooted in the daily work it takes to make a difference, like Everytown for Gun Safety, March for Our Lives, Moms Demand Action, Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence, and Sandy Hook Promise.
And, yes, we must vote. Are you registered to vote? Are you voting in all elections, national and local? Check out this voting data for Tennessee.
So few people are voting, which indicates that if we vote for change, it can happen.
Both of these options involve strategy. While playing the long game is a must, changes aren’t happening soon enough, and we continue to lose our kids. We cannot keep hanging our hats on the hooks of anticipation of change. That is not good enough, not for us and not for our children.
There must be something else. There must be another way to stop the carnage. What must it take? What must we do? We deserve better. Our kids deserve better.
I keep trying to figure out how to solve the problem with guns now. It should be simple. It is simple, but many people in power don’t care and don’t want to solve the problem.
It’s maddening. I don’t know what to do or say. A knot of heat emanates from deep within my chest when I think about it. I’m sickened. Distraught. I’ve been sitting with it when I can, trying to figure out how to convince people in charge to get on board with transforming our country to save children’s lives. And I can’t think of anything that hasn’t already been said or done.
The data is clear: Americans want common-sense gun laws. The minority doesn’t wish to modify the status quo, but they have enough power in Congress (nationally and locally) to prevent sensible laws from being passed.
How is this democracy? How is this representative of “We the People?” Instead, this country has become representative of death, fear, and the pursuit of despair and devastation. This is not freedom. We aren’t free, and neither are our children.
I can’t see any significant change happening now in this country, as it should. Indeed, the folks preventing meaningful progress do not care. They do not have to see the bloody, lifeless bodies on the floor, nor must they face the affected families or living victims to explain why they refuse to act.
It should be required for all state and national members of Congress to meet with the victims and families of every person murdered in a mass shooting. They should have to look them in the eyes and tell them why they would rather line their pockets with blood money and why allowing anyone to possess a firearm is more important than their lives or those killed.
The only thing that those blocking common-sense gun laws understand or care about is power and money. Unfortunately, those are the only languages they speak.
Therefore, the only thing I can think of that may make a difference in the short term is a mass mobilization of protests in which parents keep their kids home from school, and people refuse to work until gun control laws are passed. Everyone must come together to bring the fire to those in power, to put a cog in the machine of capitalism, and ultimately halt the economy, refusing to return until common sense laws are passed that will help keep Americans, especially children, safe. This kind of action would require days or more of protests.
What if we tanked the economy? That might get their attention. “We the People,” are the economy, and this country would cease functioning without us. Period. We must not yield. We must call their bluff because they think everything will go back to normal and blow over. After all, it always does because we allow it.
Aren’t we tired of our babies being slaughtered? Aren’t we tired of the tears and the guttural yells of mothers putting their children in the ground? Aren’t we tired of thinking about what songs we’ll play at our kid’s funeral if it happens to us?
Because, at some point, chances are that it will. The number one cause of death for American youth is guns. None of us are immune to this. Not anymore.
I acknowledge that talking about mass protests and people refusing to work is speaking from a place of privilege, as there are so many people who cannot afford not to go to one or two or three of their jobs or not send their kid(s) to school so they can work to put food on the table and pay their bills.
This, too, is part of the plan to keep power in the hands of the few. What if we all refused to return to “business as usual” until protections for the American people are implemented?
Gun control.
LGBTQIA+ rights.
An end to racism.
Allowing women to make decisions about their bodies.
Ensuring safety.
Fighting poverty.
Paying living wages and guaranteed income.
Enacting equity.
Free healthcare for all, including mental health.
Funding education.
Stop fucking banning books.
Am I losing my mind? Am I the only person in this godforsaken country who believes things could be much easier? Am I just living in a dream world? Is the romantic in me truly hopeless?
It could be so easy. Kindness and love. We could be free. It could be so beautiful.
We could live in a place where children are encouraged to dream and are allowed to live.
Or are “We the People” and “Land of the free” the American [pipe] dream?
A reminder: “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2:17
Hi Kacie,
I wrote about this, this week as well, if you want to check it out. https://pocketfulofprose.substack.com/p/how-do-we-heal-personally-and-collectively
In talking with my husband, he reminded me that there really are more of us than there are of them, more of us who just want to live our lives, send our kids to school, see them make friends... more of us who are not trying to scapegoat trans people and take all the books off the shelves, more of us who believe in common sense laws.
I do think we need to make a cultural shift as well. We are okay with violence in a way that we should not be. I am lost as to where to start but I agree that if we linked it to loss of profit, we would see results. I have mixed feelings about a protest where kids can’t access school as that was so hard for kids, especially kids in poverty, during the pandemic.