Musings That No Child Should Encounter

My old glasses were pranksters. They hid on an obscure shelf in the garage, snickering gleefully while I looked for them in the house and in the front yard. It wasn’t until I went searching for my copy of the complete short stories of Flannery O’Connor for a course with Amelia Lifelong Learning that a glint of sunlight coming through the windows in the door of the garage showed on their lenses.

AHA! They thought they were so clever. They didn’t even think to hide, lenses down.

Speaking of things hidden, I read a story this week that broke my heart. A little girl had always wanted light-up shoes. Her mother got her some for back to school. She came home from school and asked her mother for new shoes again. Her mother said, ”I just got you the new shoes you wanted.” “I know,” said the little girl sadly. “But we had a blackout drill at school in case someone tries to shoot us. I don’t want my friends to get hurt because I give away our hiding place if they see my shoes.”

From the mouth of babes. This child had more empathy for others than many adults. Her young mind worked out a solution to a problem. She cared for others enough to give up her beloved shoes.

After reading this story, I asked myself: Why do children have to spend their emotional and mental energies worrying about adult problems? Why are we being governed by elected leaders who have less empathy than this child? Why are some citizens completely up in arms over references to sex in reading materials, regardless of what protections qualified educators have in place, but say nothing about the safety of children and youth in school and on the streets except to advocate for more “security”?

I went looking for answers.

Rob Bell is a former pastor who is now an author, playwright and speaker. I include this quote from his book, “Everything is Spiritual: Who We Are and What We're Doing Here."

“The Bible isn't a book about how to get into Heaven, it's a library of poems and letters and stories about bringing Heaven to Earth now, about this world becoming more and more the place it should be. There is very, very little in the Bible about what happens when you die. That's not what the writers were focused on. Their interest, again and again, is on how this world is arranged. Does everyone have enough? Are the power structures tilted in favor of the vulnerable? Has violence been renounced, or is it being kept in circulation?”

I found his questions compelling. My attention was grabbed by the last one: “Has violence been renounced or is it being kept in circulation?” I did not have to look very far beyond my own observations to find some data.

“Guns still the leading cause of death for youth” was the title of an article in the Times-Union from September 15, 2024, page 20A which had been taken from the USA TODAY. The article quoted extensively from a report just released by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. So far this year, there have been 389 mass shootings (an incident involving four or more victims) with 28 of them being school shootings. The statistics among marginalized groups and at-risk groups occur at a mind-boggling rate, higher than for the white population.

There are clear policy recommendations that could help reverse these escalating trends. It means requiring safe firearm storage, background checks, removing firearms from those at risk of violence to themselves or others, repealing “stand your ground” laws and implementing community violence intervention programs. These are not expensive potential solutions unless you monetize the cost of political will.

The last short story in Flannery O’Connor’s collection is titled, “Judgement Day.” It is the last short story she wrote before her untimely death from lupus in 1964 at age 39.

In it, she writes in the voice of Tanner, an old white man moved from his native Georgia to New York City, against his will, by his daughter to be cared for in his last days. Tanner was a “hard shell Baptist” who had not taken to any new ways between the races. And if he were to die, he wanted most of all to be buried back home.

His daughter said she would bury him right there in New York. He was aghast and aggrieved. After that, he plotted his escape. He said, “The Judgement Day is coming. The sheep’ll be separated from the goats. Them that kept their promises from them that didn’t. Them that honored their father and their mother and them that ....” His daughter heaved a loud sigh that drowned him out. “Stop thinking about morbid stuff like death, hell and judgement.”

Them that kept their promises. Them that didn’t. Judgement Day indeed.