by Billy Kilgore,Tennessee Lookout
I’ve struggled to do basic tasks this week. The never-ending nightmare of school shootings has struck again but this time the bloodshed is closer to home. Since the shooting on Monday at The Covenant School in Nashville, I’ve felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. As a parent, I’m experiencing a primal fear of being unable to shield my children from violence.
The day of the shooting I sat in the school pickup line considering the possibility of a stranger with an assault rifle attacking my son’s elementary school. I graduated from high school the year before the Columbine massacre and never had to worry about school shootings. But, my kids will spend their school years with the possibility of one always lingering in the back of their minds.
Like many others, I’ve been haunted the past few days by the image captured by photojournalist Nicole Hester of a little girl with face and hand pressed to the glass of a school bus taking her to a reunification site. Her terrorized face is seared into my memory. I can’t stop studying that child’s traumatized face and considering the lifelong pain she will carry in her mind, body, and spirit.
And I made the mistake of watching the footage from the school’s security camera and the brave police officers’ body cameras. (If you’re a parent, I caution you to think hard about whether it’s helpful to view it.) Something inside me snapped watching the chaos unfold inside the school knowing the children were huddled in their rooms wondering if they would live or die. It was a nightmare scene straight out of hell.
I’ve been waiting for reassuring words from the powers that be but haven’t heard anything that makes me feel better about my kid’s future. Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, who represents the district where The Covenant School is located, sent vague “thoughts and prayers” to families of the deceased but expressed no regret over posing with assault weapons, along with this family, for his 2021 Christmas card.
In a moment of disturbing candor, when asked about the shooting, Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, who serves Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District, bluntly said “we’re not gonna fix it.”
In the South, where we exalt religious values, it’s disturbing that so many elected officials who wear their Christian faith like a badge, ignore Jesus’ teachings regarding children.
Gov. Bill Lee released a heartfelt video on Tuesday afternoon, but he insisted now isn’t the time to talk about solutions. This is difficult to hear considering the long history of school shootings in America, not to mention mass shootings in our state ranging from the 2018 Nashville Waffle House shooting to the 2017 Burnette Chapel shooting to the 2008 Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church shooting in Knoxville.. The governor’s request to wait strikes me as an all too familiar delay tactic.
I’m left wondering who is going to lead?
Someone must because we’re failing our children, and this is unforgivable. We can’t look away from the traumatized eyes of the child on that school bus. Instead of going about business-as-usual, we owe it to her and kids across our state to examine her face and then ask: what is the right thing to do?
In the South, where we exalt religious values, it’s disturbing that so many elected officials who wear their Christian faith like a badge, ignore Jesus’ teachings regarding children. Throughout the gospels, Jesus demands his followers to prioritize children. In Matthew 18, “the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
Again and again in the New Testament, Jesus rebukes those who seek to minimize the importance of children. Following Jesus means looking into the face of a child even when it is uncomfortable, even when that child is terrified. He makes clear they are his priority and rejects putting other things before them.
It’s past time to put aside whatever we are prioritizing over children — guns, financial gain or party loyalty. It’s time to look at the face of the terrorized child on the school bus and do what we must to carry out her best interests. What must we give up? What must we recommit to? We owe this to every child in our state. Nothing less.
