Knock on the wrong door and get shot. Turn into the wrong driveway and be fatally shot. Mistake a car for your own and get shot. Attempt to retrieve your basketball from a neighbor’s yard and get shot.
Pass legislation that further limits reproductive rights. Challenge access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Expand the “Don’t Say Gay” law to ban classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades. Make it a felony to provide gender-affirming health care to transgender minors.
Fire educators who teach “woke concepts” such as inclusion and systemic and structural racism. Ban books that accurately reflect all of us and our history of race in America – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Retaliate against corporations, organizations, and individuals for speaking up and out on pivotal social issues.
I could go on, but I won’t because gun violence, culture wars, book banning, and marginalizing those who are already at a disadvantage are not new. But, from my perspective, what is new is the frequency, intensity, and normalization of the terror, hurt, and pain being inflicted and experienced. We barely have time to absorb the shock and repercussions of a violent, authoritarian, bigoted, or misguided action before another occurs.
These events of the last month alone give me pause and Amanda Gorman’s “Hymn for the Hurting,” written after the Uvalde elementary mass shooting in 2022, continues to resonate with me.
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