“Happier Days”
West Nickel Mines Amish School
watercolor by Elsie Beiler
This week all nine of my great-grandchildren started back to school. None of them were murdered by a deranged fellow human with a gun.
I am grateful. I am sad. I am outraged … again. Watching Jen Psaki break down in tears while reporting the news of our country’s latest mass school shooting did me in. Seeing the ‘thoughts & prayers’ message from our country’s “leaders” made me want to throw up.
Last Sunday at my Unitarian Universalist Fellowship we had a “Blessing of the Backpacks”. The kids (and adults) who carry backpacks as part of their daily routines stood on stage and held them open to receive the love and support of their congregation as they returned to school or made the transition from summer to fall and ‘back to business’. Once the folx in the seats had tossed their great wads of Love, the minister mentioned that sometimes starting school can make us a little nervous and suggested we bundle up some Courage to add as well. There were a few mutterings about the possibility of bullying and of not liking the teacher, but not one kid said they were nervous about the possibility of being murdered in their classroom. Not one kid said they were nervous about the possibility of being murdered in their classroom. And yet it happens. Again and Again and Again and Again.
The worst of the worst … the infamous Columbine Colorado April 1999, Nickel Mines Pennsylvania October 2006, Sandy Hook Connecticut December 2012 , Parkland Florida Valentines Day 2018, Uvalde Texas May 2022, and now … Minneapolis Minnesota August 27, 2025, two little kids dead, 17 injured, gunned down during their traditional welcome back to their Annunciation Catholic School morning mass. Kids who knew to duck underneath the pews because they had “practiced” for such a possibility, kids who shielded others with their own bodies. And today in the face of it all, more blahblahblah.
If you have the stomach for it, I encourage you … No, actually, I dare you to check out this story. And then, with your broken open heart laid bare, I invite you to read the two poems that follow. And then …
School Prayer
by Diane AckermanIn the name of the daybreak
and the eyelids of morning
and the wayfaring moon
and the night when it departs,I swear I will not dishonor
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace.In the name of the sun and its mirrors
and the day that embraces it
and the cloud veils drawn over it
and the uttermost night
and the male and the female
and the plants bursting with seed
and the crowning seasons
of the firefly and the apple,I will honor all life
—wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell—on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.
Questionnaire
by Wendell BerryHow much poison are you willing
to eat for the success of the free
market and global trade? Please
name your preferred poisons.For the sake of goodness, how much
evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks
with the names of your favorite
evils and acts of hatred.What sacrifices are you prepared
to make for culture and civilization?
Please list the monuments, shrines,
and works of art you would
most willingly destroyIn the name of patriotism and
the flag, how much of our beloved
land are you willing to desecrate?
List in the following spaces
the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
you could most readily do without.State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security;
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.
And then …. What? In a country born of courage and rich with diversity, a country that has more guns than people, a country that is being openly overtaken by tyranny, how much more blahblahblah are you willing to hear? I’m afraid the answer, my friends, has been blowin’ in the wind for at least the last 50 years.
Until next time, with Love & Tears,
Sulima
Buying me a an occasional coffee helps me keep these stories coming … and gives me one less reason to cross my fingers when my Social Security payment is due!
Words fail. Each time just feels like another gut punch. Clearly too many lawmakers love their guns more than their children.
Yes, clearly … the time has come to openly SHAME!SHAME!SHAME! them.
As long as money corrupts politicians, we are so screwed.
I’m afraid money and the promise of power will always corrupt politicians. Does anyone remember the movie with Alan Alda titled “The Seduction of Joe Tynan”? It came out in 1979 & I would love to see it resurrected.