Rainbow Protectors

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Last week was a difficult week to be an American. Moreover, last week was a difficult week to be an
American high school teacher. A nineteen year old attacked his former school with an AR-15 assault
rifle and killed 14 students and three staff members. The gunman could have been one of my students.
The victims could have been my students. The victim could have been me…   


 The scary part is that as we grapple with this latest mass shooting, time is ticking on the next one. It
could be today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe in a month. We don’t know. However, we do know that if
nothing changes in America, the mass shootings will continue. How crazy is that? Is that a reality that
we are willing to accept?  

 Have you been to a concert? Have you been to the movies? Have you been to a nightclub? Do you
share a workplace with others? Do your kids go to school? Maybe it will happen at church just when
you kneel down to pray? It could happen in those places. It HAS happened in those places. I don’t
mean to scare you but it can and it WILL happen anywhere at anytime again and again if nothing
changes.

In this cycle of violence we play all the roles. We are the perpetrators. This is an Americans killing
Americans problem. We are the victims. These are our children. These are our loved ones. More than
anything we are the bystanders. This has happened over and over and we have done nothing.

What we need are some upstanders. What we need are some people to step up and stop this insanity.
Last Sunday while I sat in church the priest tried to heal the congregation. The day’s readings were
about Noah and the flood and Jesus in the desert. The priest told the congregation that it “takes a
storm to bring on a rainbow”. He implored us to search for the rainbows. Noah did. Jesus did. They
came out better for it. Humanity came out better for it.

This week our rainbow appeared. On the other side of that storm of bullets stood some upstanders.
America’s rainbow, shining bright on the horizon. High School Kids!

ABC News
America’s Rainbow

We have been stuck in this damn gun debate since Columbine. That was in 1999. The kids killed last
week weren't even alive then! Yet, we as a country have done nothing. Nothing! Now, our youth are
calling us on it.

“The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us.
And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and are prepared to call B.S.
-Emma González, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High School

We had a terrible storm last week but now there is a bright rainbow on the horizon. However, the
problem with this rainbow, just like any other rainbow, is that as the storm fades away so does the
rainbow.

We can’t let this rainbow fade away!

This is the job of a teacher. When you’re a high school teacher there are a lot of storms. However,
you search constantly for rainbows. When you find one you protect it. You make sure that the
conditions are right so that the rainbow doesn’t fade. If you smother it, it’s gone. If you neglect it, it’s
gone. Good teachers work behind the scenes to make sure that the rainbow stays bright for all the
world to see.

This is what adults in America need to do now.

These kids need rainbow protectors. They don’t just need their teachers and parents. They need the
whole community. They need electricians, doctors, stay-at-home parents, nurses, retirees, truck
drivers, business men and women. They need IT guys and gals, chefs, engineers, consultants.
They need us! They need us!

We can’t steal their message and smother it. Nor, can we neglect it. We need to provide these
students space and make the conditions right for their message to permeate.       

 When I went to the inauguration last year I wrote these words about this generation of students:


I see in these students hope for our country.
My eyes tear up as I write that phrase.
Let me write it again.
I see in these students hope for our country.
-Hope and Fear
Do you?

If so I would like you to think about how you can help the students from Stoneman Douglas and
around our country work to stop mass shootings in America?

 Let your voice be heard. Reply to this question. Click here.

This forum will stop taking responses on Friday March 2nd at 5:00 pm.


  

  

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