“No more weeping and a wailing! I’m going home to live with God”. Do these lyrics to this old Negro spiritual made famous by Sister Mahalia Jackson, spark memories? When trying to think of uplifting words to share this month, none came to mind. As Mother’s Day is celebrated in early May, I’d, initially, envisioned writing about the nourishing love of mothers. Then, the Buffalo shootings happened, followed by the killings of little children and two of their teachers in Uvalde, Texas. My heart broke with the news of both events. In fact, it’s still breaking. “Where is mercy when horrific murders like these continue to happen and more rapidly”, I asked God? Why has regard for human life evaporated from the world in which we find ourselves? When will the killing stop! Especially deploring is that more and more people have begun treating murderous rampages as everyday occurrences – ones that we must expect and accept! This attitude is appalling me.
As a Coloradoan living close to Jefferson County, I clearly remember the day when the Columbine High School shootings by two economically affluent white teen incited by Hitler’s White Supremacy Movement, happened. That day while at work, someone alerted me to the massacres. I immediately jumped in my car and drove like a bat out of hell through downtown Denver to my young sons’ school, praying all the way that they were safe. After arriving home with the boys, I couldn’t stop thinking about the parents whose lives were destroyed that day. Subsequently, more killings began occurring in different parts of the U.S. and a few other places in the world. In fact, we’ve had subsequent massacres in Colorado – one in a grocery store where I once shopped and another at a movie theater housed in a mall where my family occasionally shopped.
No one needs an assault weapon, except perhaps those in the Armed Forces. How much longer will we allow politicians dictate that they’re sold to virtually anyone off the street? Elected officials work for us constituents – not for the lobbies that pack many of their wallets. Even though they will take no action of consequence, we continue to send them back to D.C.! Why? Because “equitable and fair” voting is becoming a lost right. Even if voting rights – particularly those of people of color – are not completely eviscerated, its power as collective blocks is becoming diluted to the point of meaningless. Something must be done, and it is the responsibility of each of us to help. Do whatever you can. The synergy of our individual actions will coalesce into collective force like none seen before. Sister-to-Sister, Inc. is interested in compiling action steps and seek your input. We invite you to share suggestions at info@sister-to-sister.org by September 30, 2022. If you’d like to take a more active role, please contact us at this email address.