Dear Church Family,
When I saw the news again yesterday, I just had no words. Another shooting, less than a week after last week’s horrific one. But it is my calling and responsibility to “have words” even at times like these… and words more than “no, no, no.”
We have spent a year getting used to one kind of senseless loss of life, and now we are confronted with another kind. Strange how it takes different kinds of resilience to cope with each; we perhaps got used to thousands of daily deaths from covid, and we numbed out so that today’s death toll, in the hundreds, — while truly terrible — seems like great news. But the twisted and hateful targeting of eight innocent people last week, and the random deaths of ten innocent people this week, throws us back on our knees in agony and exhaustion.
Much like the shootings, covid has been both random and racist in its death toll. Covid, like gun violence, could strike anyone anywhere; but it is most likely to strike where poverty, racism, discrimination and desperation have already struck. Though the kind of “mass shooting” events that catch media attention have taken about a one-year break, gun violence did not take a break, and murder rates were extremely high throughout 2020. People like the spa workers in Atlanta and the grocery store employees in Boulder regularly experience other kinds of abusive or uncaring behavior from members of the public who take them for granted, harass them sexually, or refuse to wear masks. Sadly, we grow accustomed to these everyday abuses and everyday death tolls.
A song I learned from the Poor People’s Campaign comes to mind today. “Somebody’s hurting my sister, and it’s gone on far too long; and we won’t be silent any more.” Gun violence has gone on far too long. Anti-Asian racism has gone on far, far too long. The degradation of poverty has gone on far too long. And this unbelievable pandemic has gone on so much longer than it ever should have. We rush to pay attention and to care when something big hits the news; but may God grant us the stamina and attention to still care when it is not “newsworthy.” May we have energy and compassion to spare for our Asian and Pacific Islander sisters who fear ordinary danger when they walk down the street; for the grocery store employees confronting customers who refuse to mask up; for the spa workers who suffer sexual abuse; for the many people grieving someone lost to gun violence; and for the hundreds of families grieving a loved one lost to covid each and every day. God mourns all of these. May we have the courage to stand up and say “it’s gone on far too long” to all these evils and dangers, not just when they hit the news with a big splash.
The Bible teaches us to dream of a kingdom where all are well, where healing flows freely, where the poor are lifted up and where the power of love rules. May we settle for nothing less.
Every Blessing,
Talitha