Building Community
How can we transform our communities and our nation to where, rather than rushing to gun shops for an added sense of security and peace in times of fear, we rush to shore up our social connections? After all, we are always so much stronger when we stand together than when we attempt to stand alone.
I remember when I first started volunteering at an elementary school in the town where I grew up. I was connected to a wonderful fourth grade teacher through the honors program at the local college I was attending, and so I had the great opportunity to volunteer a couple of times a week acting as a classroom manager and assistant.
Over that time I connected in some pretty neat ways to several of the kids. The teacher often asked me to work with a couple of kids at a time out in the hall to try to get them some special attention they needed to catch up on some concepts. Those experiences are some of the richest in my life.
People much smarter and better educated and more charismatic than me have advocated for some really great ideas that we could try to minimize the threat to our schools posed by gun violence. I am not going to advocate either for or against guns in this post but only to say this: the thought that any child has to go to school while fearing that they might be shot rather than being thrilled to be with friends, learn exciting new things, and interact with beloved teachers, shatters something deep inside me.
Human life is of incalculable worth because every child is not just of almost endless potential but is also so deeply loved by such an intricate web of individuals from the bus drivers that pick up and drop off those kids who feel an extra care and a level of responsibility, to the teachers and staff at elementary schools that deal with appallingly low wages and often sad low levels of support but yet do remarkable things to inspire kids to learn and grow, to parents and aunts and uncles that go to school events and programs who want nothing but the very best for the kids in their lives. And on hard days like these, I try to think about my fourth grade friends like Trevor and Morgan who I met while volunteering. Thankful they were able to go throughout elementary school without actual violent events. But I’m mindful that even those who aren’t directly threatened by violence in schools, hearing about violent events make us all feel less secure and safe.
And I have to think that if we were to work within our spheres of influence to let everybody we care about know how much we care about them, how loved they are, and how desperately we want good things to come to them, that would create an interconnected web of safety and concern that, while perhaps not being influential enough to stop every mass shooting, it would make the world a bit safer, a bit more hopeful, and a bit more secure for the bright and miraculous kids that are in our lives.
March 20, 2020, the day that many communities instituted pandemic stay at home orders, was also the day that a new record was set for the number of gun sales. How can we transform our communities and our nation to where, rather than rushing to gun shops for an added sense of security and peace in times of fear, we rush to shore up our social connections? After all, we are always so much stronger when we stand together than when we attempt to stand alone.