WHENBy James R. Adair When will we decide we love our childrenmore than we love our guns? When will we decide to feed the hungryinstead of watching them die? When will we decide to house the homeless instead of arresting them? When will we decide to treat the sickinstead of forcing them into bankruptcy? When will we decide to educate …
LAMENT for ROBB ELEMENTARY, IMay 24, 2022 By JUAN PEREZ How could I ever find the words to sayto keep a place I love from such sorrowto just do something instead of nothingto being present that day to stop him How could I ever find the words to saythat I would gladly give my life for yoursjust to see you …
UVALDE, UNITE FOR WHAT’s RIGHTBy NANCY FIERSTIEN Could there possibly be an American townwith as deeply furrowed a brow?I have no real close ties to Uvalde,but I feel close to its townspeople now. They have 21 reasons and then someto be stricken, in shock, in deep pain.One sick soul with a gunshattered their horizon and obscured the sun But not …
ANYWAY By RUDI HARST Holding your smartphone in handfeeling the pull of all the voices demanding to be heard.all the choices that need to be made A few moments later a news bulletin flashes:another teenage shooter on a rampagewith a lethal gun Not far from where you sitin stunned disbelief.Good grief! Not Again! Nineteen young students dead,their tender bodiesFilled with …
UVALDE, TX By JANIE ALONSO My body feels like my wings have been pulled off, slowly.My iridescent purple appendages of creativity and lightness are lying on the ground. I feel defeated, broken, my hopeful spirit on the verge of extinction. My mind is with the children whose lives have been evaporated in the hot Texas sun. My soul cries out …
UVALDE By SARA BROWNE PARSONS We don’t want to hear it but can’t look away.We’re too close to this gut-wrenching loss.We refuse to accept what is,and want to pretend it’s not. We believe we’re better.We know we’re not.Arm anybody, arm everybodywe hand out assault weapons all around. We hate this incidentbut we embrace “the cause.”We elect them again and again,these …
IT HAPPENED By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF It happened in the land of South TexasIn the quaint town of Uvalde 19 children died in one day in one hour, in one minute in one classroom Spelling and multiplications on their minds,Mowed down by an AR-15 Death came fast and angry911 did not call them backThey fell under the desksTasted the blood of …
La Citadelle By Suzanne Morris (Its gray walls, now patched with orange lichen, are as thick as 16 feet and as high as 147 feet. More than 160 cannons point threateningly from its openings and ledges…*) As our nation absorbs the shock ofthe latest school shooting In Uvalde, Texas, legislators have conceded thatany new laws to ensure the safety of …
ElementaryBy Chivas Sandage (for Angeli Gomez) Hearing the supersonic crackof each bullet rip through the building,she rescued her two boysafter she didn’t see a single officer insideafter she ran to her sons’ classroomsafter she sprinted to the schoolafter the police chased herafter she climbed a chain link fenceafter she started runningafter she convinced officers to uncuff her after she was …
Uvalde: Not What Our Forefathers Intended By Lita Marie Bonciolini Unfathomable,inconceivable.unimaginable. Words that completely fail to conveythe horrific actions of a twisted personagainst innocents. No ordinary citizen stands a chance againsta weapon that shoots 60 rounds per minute,A security guard, armed with a revolver,could not have prevailed.How many had already died before the police arrived?How many more while they loiteredin hallways, …
