Pivotal Moments

A friend today posted on Facebook that "hopefully today will be a pivotal moment in our nations history." What are those pivotal moments? Often they are the times when we remember hearing about tragedies or news events that catch us off guard and we remember those moments as they are captured in our mind's eye by the media. The assassination's of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Armstrong's first moon walk, The Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, Columbine, 9/11, and the Obama inauguration crowds are all images that convey meaning and will never be erased from my mind. I am sure there are others that may impact you and are seared on our collective memories.

Today I was once again glued to the television and watching in horror a sight which has become all too common in America, the scene of a school in lockdown because of a shooting. This was the pivotal moment that my friend referenced because this was no high school like Columbine or University like Virginia Tech where students entered buildings with weapons and enacted whatever strange brand of vengeance that they deemed appropriate. While details are still being worked out we do know that this was a K-4 elementary school where 20 children between the ages of 5-7 years old had their lives ended as well as 6 staff members, and the gunman who was in his 20's and his mother who volunteered throughout the community. For whatever reason the shooter chose to shoot children in a first grade classroom. For me this hits close to home as my son is a first grader.
The other roughly 580 students who escaped have also suffered harm as they will have to deal with the loss of friends and beloved teachers who they will have looked up to. I found out about the tragedy on Facebook as I have a friend who lives in Newtown, Connecticut just 3 miles from the school and has children in the school district, fortunately at another school. They are safe. For that I am so grateful. Coincidentally, I found out on Facebook that I had another friend earlier this week who was ushered to safety from Nordstrom's at the Clackamas Town Center in Portland, Oregon, by undercover security where another twenty some year old man decided to open fire on shoppers with an assault weapon.

My thoughts and prayers of thankfulness for my friends safety is tempered by the realization that others do not have that consolation. They lost friends and family members to these shootings. Having friends nearby makes it real for me but not as real as if I had lost someone. Today's shooting also hit home as I have many friends who are teachers, those so often on the front lines of these attacks, and I appreciate greatly their willingness to heroically stand  to protect our children while also trying to educate them. It amazes me that they continue to do so while being humiliated with salary cuts and demands from the public which are unrealistic and demeaning of the education and dedication that they show.

Primarily however, I thought of my son and daughters who are in school today and I could not imagine having to rush to a school to see if they were safe in the wake of an attack only to find out, as twenty sets of parents did today, that the dreams I had for them had been extinguished. What anguish! It is unimaginable.
To realize that these children who, like mine, were looking forward to winter break and time with family and friends hit home. First graders, who had just finished their first fall of school as "big kids" and whose cares were about potential snow falling for sledding opportunities or vacation trips to see Grandma and Grandpa or about what Santa would be bringing them in the coming weeks. These are the victims. These are the sacrifices we make as a country for gun rights. Collateral damage. I know that my friends who are pro guns would point out that "guns don't kill, people do." Yes that is a lovely, trite saying, that I could never imagine trying to voice to a grieving parent.  I know that if someone tried to console me with that in the wake of a tragedy like this where my child had been shot and killed my response would be to explain, without words, that hands do not kill, people do!

The reality is that every year in this country approximately 11,000 Americans die from gun violence. In other civilized countries including Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, Finland, France , and Switzerland those numbers are usually about 10-60 per year. In America we have more people killed with guns in one week, over 200,  than they do in a year. For many of them we have more killed in one day, 30,  than they do in a year. Do we have a gun problem? Yes. Having lived in so many countries around the world and traveled to many more I have to say that American attitudes towards guns seems unreasonable and contributes to the violence that we see daily on our cities streets and all too often in our malls, places of worship and schools. The Michigan legislature, in the wake of the Clackamas killings, enacted legislation last night to allow concealed weapons in church's, schools, and day cares. We confront these acts of violence with a response which arms more of us. Somehow a policy of personal deterrence does not make sense to me. I hope my friend is right and that this is a pivotal moment for our country, I only hope that we have the humility to look to the rest of the world for answers.

Vicki Soto 1st grade teacher from Sandy Hook who shielded her students from the gunman and became a victim and a Hero

I also hope that our response will be based upon other motivations than fear. The pivotal moments in life both communal and personal always bring about feelings of fear and insecurity. What will happen next? What can I do? Where do we go from here? What is safe? These are questions that confront us whenever we reach a pivotal moment whether it be a cancer diagnosis, a loss of a loved one or a job, or a national tragedy. And yet we need to remember the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt who told our country in his first inaugural address that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

So how do we overcome fear? With love. John tells us that "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18) This may seem like a simplistic answer, but there is nothing simple about it. Love is difficult, especially in the face of the type of pain we face with events such as today's. However, as hard as it may seem, the truth exists that only in love can fear be conquered. So what do we need to do? We need to hold strong to the one who loves us. In God Calling, the two listeners hear God telling them "you must not allow fear to enter, Talk to Me, Think of Me. Talk of Me. Love Me. And that sense of My Power will so possess you that no fear can possess your mind. Be strong in this My Love."
We need to cling to love and we need to comfort those who are fearful and brokenhearted with that love. How can we overcome the violence of our society? By rejecting fear and developing more loving communities. While Facebook has kept me abreast of what is happening in my friends lives I know that I need to be more available, not virtually, but incarnately,or in the flesh to those around me. We may need to change the way we cocoon ourselves in our devices and technology and walk over to a friends house to sit with them and share lives together. I believe that part of our issues even with violence stem from our disconnected nature in our society. We don't feel loved and rarely express our own love in tangible ways to others. So maybe this week we disconnect and honor these children by committing to live and love and play and expel the fears that want to control us.

 I ask you to think of the exuberance of one of those children and allow it to drive you to do one act of kindness or love for someone each day this week. Will you pledge to do that? Please join me.  If we do that we may be able to bring good from a tragic moment and maybe one act by one act create the pivotal moment that is needed in our culture. Not through legislation, not through empty words, but through loving acts.