FAITH: And what are we to do?

Along with many others I weep over the killing of more school children in a small town in Texas. The shooting of school children in America has become epidemic and there will be more. Is there any way to stop the killing? Along with millions of other Americans, I say that together we can bring a new, better and safer day for us all. But what specifically are the right answers to bring about the new day?

First, take note of the proposals that are being made. We have all heard them. Arm all teachers. Allow students to carry guns to school. Put armed policemen in every school. Make every school building a safe building with metal detectors and other security devices. Limit or even ban the carrying of weapons whether inside or outside of school buildings. Place heavier restrictions on the manufacture and sale of weapons of all kinds. Make game hunting of all kinds illegal. Take guns from everyone except law enforcement officers or military personnel. Impose more severe penalties on people who violate gun laws.

The debate about what to do is highly emotional. The debate challenges the brightest philosophers and the most devout theologians. Convictions and beliefs are translated into actions every day. Some people do not own or ever carry a weapon of any kind. Others do not go to the grocery store without a concealed weapon. We live together in a society that is dedicated to freedom for all. Many Americans give lip service to the exercise of freedom and then carry on ugly practices that deny the very freedom to all that they hold dear for themselves. I cannot embrace the restrictive proposals that are now being made in the name of safety. Most of the restrictive proposals will voraciously eat up resources and energy that are needed for doing constructive things.

I was reared in a family that had few rules but very high expectations. It is a great formula for building a safe, productive and just society. A nation with high expectations for its citizens is a good base from which to start. Children are very responsive to expectations. As a society we will seldom achieve more than we expect of one another.

If we reject restrictive practices to make our schools safe, what should we do? Silence and inaction are unacceptable. The person who knows what to do and does not do them, that person is falling short of what he can be and is missing the mark of the potential of his life. When we drop out of the effort to make schools safe, we become a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.

Anyone who knows me knows that I read books. I will die having had too little time to read. I try to read helpful and significant books. Some books are more important than others. My Kids by Robert Putnam belongs in my list of the five most important books that I have ever read. Robert Putnam is a Harvard sociologist. The book was published in 2015 and has spent much of the time since on the New York Times best seller list. It is a must read for every person who works with kids. Teachers who have not read Our Kids should be embarrassed. Legislators and councilmen who vote on education budgets should be voted out of office if they have not read Our Kids. School board members who have not read Our Kids should be voted out of office. Ministers, social workers and public employees that work with children should be deemed under-educated if they have not read “Our Kids.”

The premise of the book is simple. “America’s kids belong to us and we to them. They are our kids.”

Putnam takes the reader through the heartbreaking story of America’s kids. Much of the roots of the kid story is found in the devaluation of family life. Next there is a new wave of segregation that is making us into a class society. The new segregation is not racial; rather it is social and economic. Next there is an opportunity gap. Our children are not all being offered the same opportunities as middle class and rich kids.

What does the story of Our Kids have to do with the current rash of violence in our schools? Look carefully at each shooting spree and stressful childhood appears. When the needs of children go begging, unwanted children, violence, drug addiction, theft, imprisonment and mayhem are around the corner.

The solutions to school violence will take time, but they can be done. Yes, it will take money, but not nearly as much as prisons and growing police forces. It will take an army of ordinary citizens who care about our kids. It will take reformed schools, some increase in funding for schools, churches with a reformed conscience and priority, informed legislators and school board members, and, possibly most importantly, a public that claims every kid as its own.

The End

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net