Hymn for the Hurting

Everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed and strange,

Minds made muddied and mute.

We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.

And yet none of it is new.

We knew it as home,

As horror,

As heritage.

Even our children

Cannot be children,

Cannot be.

Everything hurts.

It’s a hard time to be alive,

And even harder to stay that way.

We’re burdened to live out these days,

While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.

This alarm is how we know

We must be altered—

That we must differ or die,

That we must triumph or try.

Thus while hate cannot be terminated,

It can be transformed

Into a love that lets us live.

May we not grieve, but give:

May we not just ache, but act;

May our signed right to bear arms

Never blind our sight from shared harm;

May we choose our children over chaos.

May another innocent never be lost.

Maybe everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed & strange.

But only when everything hurts

May everything change.

AMANDA GORMAN…2021 U.S. YOUTH POET LAUREATE

Published in May 27 New York Times

So, Where Do We Begin?

We’ve been hit with a generation of challenges in just the past few years. Daunting, to say the least. But those are the hands we’ve been dealt, and we’ve got to make a diligent effort to address them, so our children won’t be solely responsible for the “cleanup on Aisle America.” Fine, Dan, but could we be more specific? Absolutely…Consider this.

We each have different gifts, resources, educational specialties, ranges of experience, networks, favorite charities, civic projects, communications skills, social media mastery, etc., etc. Our families, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, faith-based affiliations, non-profits need us. Here are some major areas of concern/need/opportunity for us to consider. Let’s reflect, and see how we can raise our civic game, and better partner with our elected officials to prioritize issues, mobilize resources, and achieve constructive change. Here are some high-profile concerns/issues for consideration. Just a few for sake of discussion. You’ll have several of your own to spark your civic creativity.

COVID …We’re not through, folks! What are you, your family, work colleagues and local governance doing to address the possibilities of resurgence?

BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE…An unforgivable wakeup call relative to corporate conscience/greed, regulatory supervision and our hyper-dependence on too few producers of many critical products/services. (drugs, food, raw materials, manufacturing components, etc.)

GOVERNMENT DYSFUNCTION AND INCOMPETENCE…We have a tremendous vested interest in demanding, enabling and supporting more responsive governance. This ain’t working, at most any level. We each have a role in the solution. We must expect better and work for same. And, don’t get me started on our Republican Senatorial “leadership,” wasting our/their energy on blame, rhetorical posturing and other shiny object distractions, rather than NEGOTIATING on constructive legislation.

OUR TWO PARTY POLITICAL SYSTEM…Dems have integrity without muscle. R’s have been hijacked by a loud minority with muscle, but little integrity. No way to run a railroad… in either direction. Bipartisan Party operatives need to get over themselves, throw away the adversarial blaming scripts and eliminate/moderate the dominance of the extremists.

PUBLIC EDUCATION…We must expect and encourage well-trained, WELL-PAID teachers and administrators, in complement with respected community leader school boards to administer our children’s education. Stop the nonsense with the anti-”woke,” book banning, CRT-fearing fringe who are dangerously disruptive to effective public education. Note: Most of the loudest critics are ill-informed and easily manipulated…unable to even define “conservative, liberal, CRT and woke.” Yet in many places, they have undue influence.

GUN REFORM…This goes without saying, but I have to say it. As you know, I’m a gun owner. That said, there is absolutely no justification for assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, ghost guns, Open Carry and lack of background checks. Let’s not let our politicos off the hook until they’ve negotiated some effective legislation to reverse this deadly nonsense.

EXPECTING BUREAUCRACIES TO WORK…At the lowest level, Austin doesn’t have nearly enough lifeguards, so can’t open many pools as schools let out in record heat. City management incompetence extraordinaire.

At the highest and most significant levels, almost nobody and no systems worked in Uvalde…except for the children and teachers who were doomed… greatly due to bureaucratic incompetence and law enforcement cowardice. The lives lost… a preventable tragedy under most any circumstances. God Bless ‘em all.

A SOBERING REALITY CHECK…LESSONS FROM UVALDE…There had to be some honorable, trained law enforcement reps on duty in Uvalde. HOWEVER, their performance was such that we tragically reaped what we sowed if we find that too many were poorly educated, poorly paid, poorly trained, poorly supervised officers who were in it for the ‘jobs,” and proved to be incapable of rising to this life and too-many deaths occasion…though we hear that many were recently “trained” for just those scenarios.

So…What Now?

Let’s get to work. In our schools, our elections, our political parties, our non-profits, our neighborhoods, our workplace civic projects…Just Act and DO SOMETHING. Then, Do More. Test your comfort level a bit. Think about the Ukrainians, and be grateful we have the opportunity for relatively peaceful self-determination. We obviously have considerable opportunities. The Uvalde kids will never have those options. May the Gods of our Understanding bless our efforts to expect better and do better. TOGETHER.