Afraid for Our children

A few years ago I posted a letter my grandfather had written to my father on VE Day. My father was in Germany when the war ended.

It was clear from the letter that my grandfather had lived in fear for my father’s life. He had written to my father frequently, perhaps every day. On VE Day he apologized for writing only a short letter because he was so overcome with emotion and gratitude.  A religious man, he thanked God for his mercy.  

As I was getting ready to read the letter at my temple on the anniversary of my grandfather’s death, I thought about how fortunate I have been to never have had a child at war. To never have had a child far away (in a time before cell phones and instant news) and in constant danger.

And then the realization hit me that In the United States of America in 2022 parents who send their children to school experience this every day. They have no idea if this will be the day that some teenage boy with an AR 15 will walk through the halls of their child’s school on a killing spree. They have no idea if their child will be murdered, injured or traumatized.  

The United State of America in 2022. We have let this happen. We must put an end to it.