While
watching the coverage of the horrific school shooting in Florida, I thought of
the words of the late Marjorie Williams, a journalist at the Washington Post
who once wrote “Time and chance happen to us all, darling child, and even
grown-ups can bear it only a little at a time.”
Being
able to “bear it only a little at a time” resonates with me. As a father,
grandfather and uncle I find myself changing the channel away from the
carnage. But this was more than “time
and chance” happening. Time and chance at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
were compounded by a sickness and evil whose deadly consequence was politically
enabled, and can only be stopped by political courage.
Everyone
who works with or on behalf of kids – whether in hunger, health, education,
sports – has a responsibility to protect
the work they do and the kids they serve, by standing up for common sense gun
safety laws that the majority of Americans say they support. In fact, we have
an even greater responsibility than others.
One
man may be responsible for the slaughter of innocents. All of us are
responsible for stopping it.
