SOL18: 7000 Young Lives Are Too High a Price
Posted on March 14th, 2018
I can’t look at the shoes without shuddering. It’s only a photo and yet tears are leaking from my eyes and my hands shake as sorrow snakes through me into my stomach. So many young lives cut short.
In 26 years of teaching secondary English, I calculate that I taught about 3,200 students—less than HALF the number of young people killed by guns since December 2012.
The three students I lost while teaching still make my heart ache. Amanda, killed while walking home after school as a 7th grader. The 7th grade girl in my reading class whose face I still see but whose name is lost to me, killed one afternoon during the second week of school by a ricocheting bullet shot from her brother’s gun. Zach, a sophomore, whose heart gave out while he was jogging one evening.
Three young lives cut short. But how are we supposed to comprehend 7,000 young lives taken? The grief is too much to bear. Or is it? Will the adults in power close off their hearts to the lives of America’s young people?
The photo reminds me of the 4000 shoes on display in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. What does it say about us that we need such tragic evidence of death to believe the truth?
Are the lives of 7,000 children a reasonable cost for someone’s right to own an assault weapon?
Jesus spoke plainly concerning our responsibility for children when he admonished his listeners that, “It would be better for someone to have a millstone were hung around his neck and be were thrown into the sea, than cause one of these little ones to stumble.”
What defense will we offer?
There should be another symbol for a post like this; “like” is too tepid a response. You have inspired me to write about something other than what I had planned today. Powerful writing invites a response. Thanks.
Realizing you’ve taught half of those shoes is powerful.
The image of the shoes is so painful, and you’ve written about it in such a moving way. Thank you for sharing this.
I too posted about this today! The shoe picture was horrible and made it more quantifiable visible. I remember how shookup I was by the shoe display in the National Holocaust Memorial. Tough times and much work to do. Looks like we have an army to help sadly.
When I saw the photo you are talking about, over and over today, I didn’t feel like crying (which is a normal reaction for me.) Instead, I felt relieved that people are finally making a really big deal out of this loss of lives. People have seemed to just want it to go away before, which I get, but now there has been too much loss to ignore I guess. Surely some of the elected people who are making the laws must have been touched by this display, and hopefully they are thinking differently about some of the laws. It’s got to stop.
Surely you are right and our legislators will do the moral thing rather than the expedient one. Thank goodness for the young people who are keeping the issues out in front of the public and inspiring grownups to act.
This symbolic yet tangible representation of all the young lives that have been taken is a powerful one. Shoes, such a normal part of everyday life. Almost taken for granted. We can’t take young lives for granted. We must protect them, cherish them. And as teachers, strive to give them an education that will enrich their lives and help them find their voice.
And, as believers, as you said eloquently by quoting scripture, be responsible.