Prayers are fine. But the Covenant School shooting must lead us to action | Opinion
Three kids and three adults left for school and work and didn’t come home Monday in Nashville. Someone shot them with an assault rifle. The kids were all third-graders, same as my son. One was the child of a minister, like me. I don’t have words.
We see tragedies like this one happen all across our country, and all too often. Politicians — on the right and the left — will use these tragedies as talking points in our toxic national “discourse.” We’re too busy screaming about why our side is right, and how the other side is evil. It feels like we’re all just shouting at each other.
No one’s listening. Certainly not my congressman.
“We’re not gonna fix it,” he said on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
Now, I don’t think he’s evil. He’s probably a pretty good politician. He keeps getting elected, which around here means you belong to the right political party and generally toe the line.
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He offered his prayers. So did our governor and our state legislators. Prayers matter, for sure. They also pointed to Bible verses. Scripture is comforting, and comfort is needed when we’re shaken to the core, like so many of us were Monday.
I’ll point to some scripture myself, from the book of James.
“Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, ‘Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well.’ — but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
“So you see, faith by itself isn’t good enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”
Dead and useless. Sums it up pretty succinctly. People are dying. Our politicians are useless.
I’m not just picking on my congressman. He’s like just about every other politician in my home state. They’re all useless when it comes to keeping our kids from dying because of guns. They’ve shown us what they care about by the way they legislate.
They’ve shown us what they think is important. They’ll talk a lot about protecting kids — from the “wrong” books or the “wrong” sorts of people or the “wrong” ideas.
And they’ll definitely pray. That’s fine. Prayers are needed, too. I won’t ever criticize someone for their faith. But they’ll also throw up their hands like my congressman did and tell us we can’t stop evil people from committing crimes. Or maybe they’ll talk about locking doors and arming teachers or turning places like schools into locked-down fortresses.
What they won’t do these days is act. On guns. On the weapons of war like the assault rifle an evil person used to destroy so many lives at the Covenant School on Monday.
We’re in a crisis. My son is more likely to die from a gun-related incident than any other cause. Maybe, just maybe, we have a problem with guns.
So I’m going to go ahead and disagree with my congressman. With a righteous anger that has only built since I first saw his comments Tuesday.
We can fix it. We’re gonna fix it. Let’s start by electing people who actually want to try to tackle the real problems facing our country and our kids.
Join me in standing up, sharing your voice and paying attention to what our elected leaders do with their power and position. Let them know how you feel. Offer suggestions. Make some noise.
Ask yourself, are they doing everything they can to protect our kids? Our neighbors? The least of us?
It’s a while until our next elections. Don’t forget. We can’t forget. Our children’s lives literally depend on it.
I’m tired of dead and useless. We’ve all prayed. Now it’s time to act.
Drew Edwards is a husband, father and software developer in Knoxville. From 2006-2009, he covered Tennessee athletics for the News Sentinel.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Opinion: Prayers are fine. But school shooting must lead to action
