Tomorrow, It Could Be Me

For those who need clarification: This has to do with the most recent mass shooting. A school shooting ... or maybe I should say, another school shooting. This time it's an elementary school in Texas. Is my school next? You can't be in my profession and not think about things like that.

So what do we do about it? Nothing. Not. One. Damned. Thing. Nothing ever changes. Nothing ever gets done. We have the capacity to make real changes. But we don't have the will. We won't take simple, proven, common sense steps to cut down on mass shootings because ... reasons. Honestly, I don't know why.

Actually, I do know why. Because there are too many people who value "Rights" in the abstract without any consideration of concrete consequences. Too many organ grinders singing the halcyon song of "GUNS=FREEDOM!!!1!" and too many monkeys who follow because it never occurs to them that they don't have to. Too many moral absolutists who think any kind of gun legislation is a slippery slope to a dystopian Socialist police state. Too many who, in their heart of hearts, doesn't see any of this as a problem because nothing bad happens to them.

And let's not forget the corporations and political organizations who have too much to lose if the status quo changes even a little bit.

So what do we offer? "Thought and Prayers™". Because it's all we've got. We call upon God to save us, because it is inconceivable to us that we might have the capacity to save ourselves. 

We could. But we won't.

The problem is that God, in my experience, has never promised to save us in spite of ourselves. In His wisdom, God never solves for us problems that we have the capacity to solve for ourselves. He may move mountains for us if the need arises ... but in most cases, He hands us a shovel and moves us to start digging.

"Thoughts and Prayers™" are not the solution to the current and ongoing problem of mass shootings. God won't wash the blood from our collective hands if we won't even turn on the water.