Parkland...

"Thoughts and prayers." We pastors often write or speak those words, seeking to comfort a parishioner experiencing some personal challenge, suffering through grief or illness, or facing other emotional trauma. Even then they sometimes feel empty. How empty they indeed are when spoken by gutless legislators or a president who doesn't even mention the word "gun" in a speech designed to "comfort" the families and friends of 17 people gunned down ruthlessly in a high school in Florida. "Thoughts and prayers?"

Imagine if the response to the attack on Pearl Harbor had been "thoughts and prayers," or if "thoughts and prayers" had been all that was done about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. "Thoughts and prayers"--"there's nothing else we can do..." The gun lobby, that owns this president and most of the U.S. Congress, hides behind the Second Amendment as a "protected right," while my personal, constitutional "rights" are infringed every time I want to go on an airplane, because of our national response to terrorism. A whole raft of freedoms have been taken away because of a desire to halt the kind of attack visited upon us from the sky on 9-11. I've been groped, patted down, X-rayed, forced to walk through scanners on a filthy floor in stocking feet, holding my pants up, and told how much aftershave I could pack in my carry-on because of the fear of terrorism, and 99% of us are happy to put up with it, for the safety of us all. And yet, more people are gunned down every 10 days in America than died in the New York terrorist attacks. Oh, but "thoughts and prayers."

We DO pray for the families and friends of the victims of Parkland. We DO pray for a young man whose messed up head would lead him to murder 17 people in cold blood. We DO pray for the sanity of our nation as we are held hostage by the NRA and their privately owned legislature and White House. We pray for them all. (I won't tell you what I'm praying for, though, when it comes to our government officials and aforementioned NRA, as you might not want to have me as your pastor at this moment, if you knew. ) This morning I heard the wailing cries of the mother of a 14-year-old girl killed at Parkland, and I will never forget it. Never. I have to do something. I'm sure YOU feel you have to do something. Of course, there is always "thoughts and prayers."

Barack Obama said it best, "Don't boo, VOTE." The people we now have in office are so clueless that they don't even act when THEY, THEMSELVES are the "target practice" for some sick, gun-wielding individual while they were playing baseball. How nuts is that? It's time for a new legal interpretation of the Second Amendment, one that acknowledges that the popular "Originalist" interpretation--that the Founding Fathers put this amendment in the Constitution so citizens could be armed to overthrow their government, should it become oppressive--is no longer valid. That boat's sailed, friends. We can't POSSIBLY own enough weapons to defeat the United States Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. So give up on that argument. Without it, reasonable gun safety laws  are possible.

While I believe in prayer--and I do most sincerely--I also believe that a majority of our prayers are effective when they change PEOPLE, and PEOPLE change things. God has given us incredible gifts, a sound mind, and, in this country at least, the freedom to use them for the common good. Oh, there's a phrase often used and quoted from the Founders--"for the common good." Right now, "for the common good," it is time to rein in the out-of-control idolatry of firearms. We have to find a way to stop these horrible mass shootings, or at least make them less frequent, and possibly save SOME lives, anyway. "Thoughts and prayers" will not get it done alone. It is time for each of us to begin to speak up, to write our State and national representatives for some action on background checks and gun safety. And if this crowd won't listen to their constituents, instead of the big-money gun lobby, then it's time to vote them out and give someone else a chance.

Go to this site as an easy way to begin communicating with your U.S. representatives and senators: Democracy IO

Take some real steps to fight the gun scourge in our country and to help our children be safe at school. Once you've written some letters, made some calls, considered who you will vote for if these people don't respond to the American outcry in the wake of Parkland, THEN you are welcome to add your "thoughts and prayers." Thanks for listening, Yinz...