Again and Never Again

Again 

Another senseless violent school shooting 

Again multiple lives changed forever 

Again I do not understand – how such a disturbed young man 

Can have had such easy access to a gun 

Bent on mass destruction—of the lives of others 

And of the life that perhaps long ago was once his own 

Reading the accounts, I am saddened by the tremendous loss 

I grieve for the families and with them and thousands of others in my heart 

The question WHY never to be answered 

Why the warning signs weren’t enough…..

As I read through the paper, I see 

Again, horrid atrocities

Men bound and kneeling before being shot and dumped in a shallow grave 

A young girl gang raped in front of her father 

An internationally known runner tortured for his beliefs 

Women sexually assaulted and this being culturally acceptable

The list goes on and I can read no more 

My optimism and my hope are dimmed 

No gun control 

No genocide stopped 

No protection for those desperate to flee 

Nowhere to turn 

I seek God 

Breathe, needing hope, optimism, peace

Determined to not just be silent 

For in my silence I am complicit in having nothing change

And yet 

I wonder 

What can I do? 

Give me a specific….  There are so many from which to choose

What can I do? 

I do not understand how people, each one once an innocent child, 

Can be so cruel—filled with such hatred, anger and fear 

As to be so violent against one another 

What can I do?

What steps can I take that will bring about actions that say 

NEVER AGAIN 

© Anne Cressin, 2018

Virginia Tech students hiding in Holden Hall during massacre
Photo April 16, 2007, by William Chase Damiano
from Wikimedia Commons  

March for Change Rally following Sandy Hook school killings
Photo February 14, 2013
from Wikimedia Commons

Memorial for Pulse nightclub mass shooting
Photo July 8, 2016
from Wikimedia Commons

Student lie-in at the White House to protest gun laws
after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS
Photo February 19, 2018
by Lorie Shaull
from Wikimedia Commons