"Am I Next?" - 1

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Am I Next? Gun Violence and our Children

Rusty Leffel | United States

What are we doing to our children?  It is astonishing that we leave them in a position of actually carrying around or pinning on their shirts signs that ask "Am I Next?".  No adults are carrying such signs themselves. We are all too timid in leaving it to our children to deal with very real fears of "Am I Next?".  To our children "Am I Next?" is  very personal and very real as a threat to their lives every day.   Listen to them.  They are asking  "Am I Next?"  This is not fake news.  This is the truth we are giving them.   They consider hour by hour how to exit the school. They go through intruder drills hiding under desks and in unsecured closets to protect from a mass murderer's bullets.  Look at these children in these photographs from March for Our Lives and National School Walkout demonstratrions.  My captions are numbers only - just like the victim counts as they add up - - - "Am I Next?"   Your child?

I feel deeply about the loss to our humanity, well-being and freedom through gun violence. 

It is horrifying that we have allowed the NRA and other gun lobby groups to so cower our elected officials that their only interpretation and understanding of the 2nd Amendment is the free flow of assault rifles and all sorts of weapons through our country for killings everywhere. 

It is horrifying that our elected leaders have cowered to special interests to give big tax cuts to the already wealthy while robbing tax dollars from investment in education, mental health and programs to help people deal with each other and the world around. 

It is horrifying that we ourselves are all sitting too quietly while allowing our world to become more coarse and vulgar and divided with solutions too easily handled by reaching for a gun. 

Stop It!  We must each do something today and tomorrow and every day that will make our world a better place.

Kansas University Memorial Campanile inscription: 

"Free Government Does Not Bestow Repose upon Its Citizens but Sets Them in the Vanguard of Battle to Defend the Liberty of Every Man." [person]

     - Allen Crafton, founder and former chairman of the speech and drama department; University of Kansas

 

Rusty Leffel

6408 Willow Lane

Mission Hills, KS 66208

E: rcleffel@aol.com

W: www.rustyleffel.com

 

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