"We are deeply saddened today by the news of the latest school shooting, this time at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. The Caring Community was founded to serve teachers as a result of the Parkland tragedy, and every teacher and family in South Florida will be feeling the echoes, reliving the pain. Our hearts are heavy as well as broken to see these things happen over and over. We can only do what we can do to make a difference. Some things are out of our control.
The unimaginable pain of 21 families, the heartbreak and despair of parents and teachers everywhere reverberates loudly in our community. It is hard to see beyond the horror, to imagine a day when school shootings will never happen again. Rage, hopelessness, and fear are some responses we might feel to yet another tragedy in our schools. We just want to tell our community, and most especially our teachers and school staff, that we love them. We hope you lean on each other, that you reach out to your amazing EAP (Employee Assistance Program) if you are feeling overwhelmed by it all and that you know that, although you've probably never met any of us, we deeply honor the service you give to our children and our community. We hold onto the hope that this must be the very last time that communities suffer violence like this in any school, anywhere.
No child should ever be fearful of going to school nor should any parent or caregiver fear dropping their child off to school. Our teachers everywhere are under a great deal of stress; no one ever thought that teaching children and young adults everyday would be putting their lives on the line. And yet, we still can't get the gun reform we need or the mental health help for those who desperately need it. How many more lives do we have to lose?"
Oh, yeah... and to paraphrase an all-too-often resurfacing meme: F*ck Thoughts and Prayers; we need Policy and Change... ✊
POEM(S): Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman
Everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed and strange,
Minds made muddied and mute.
We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.
And yet none of it is new;
We knew it as home,
As horror,
As heritage.
Even our children
Cannot be children,
Cannot be.
Our hearts shadowed and strange,
Minds made muddied and mute.
We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.
And yet none of it is new;
We knew it as home,
As horror,
As heritage.
Even our children
Cannot be children,
Cannot be.
Everything hurts.
It’s a hard time to be alive,
And even harder to stay that way.
We’re burdened to live out these days,
While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.
It’s a hard time to be alive,
And even harder to stay that way.
We’re burdened to live out these days,
While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.
This alarm is how we know
We must be altered —
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.
We must be altered —
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.
May we not just grieve, but give:
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.
Maybe everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change.
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change.
America Is a Gun by Brian Bilston
England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.
Brazil is a football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona’s hand.
Germany, an oompah band.
America is a gun.
Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.
Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
Oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.
Sorrow by Tim Seibles
It's not the same
as sadness, though sorrow
has sadness in it---the way {lost}
holds losing: you can see it
in women's eyes when they laugh
and in the way men lean
over their food: after awhile,
we know nearly every love
won't go as it should,
and we know that knowing
cannot make us glad: {knowledge}
stairway to nowhere---we want
the world we cannot have,
and every day the feeling moves
between us, but we try
not to complain and almost
never fall down and cry.
QUOTE(S): “The time for us to stop mass shootings in this country is right now, right here, today." ~ Beto O'Rourke
“The only thing that can stop a bad politician with a vote is a good citizen with a vote.” ~ Jocelyn Benson, Michigan Secretary of State
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