Concern From The Middle States

Your stories of coming together for a good reason & announcements

Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash

This week I checked in with the news, and within minutes I found myself wiping tears and shaking my head, no…not again. Once again a weary reporter was trying to explain the unfolding details of yet another tragic mass shooting at an elementary school. As I turned off the news, I remembered a conversation I had with a Canadian musician who was traveling in the United States. We were having dinner and he had slipped outside for a moment to call his mom to wish her a happy birthday —Ok, which made me love him sooo much. When he came back to the table I asked how his mother was doing and if she was having a nice celebration. He answered saying that it had been a good birthday, but she worried so much about him when he was working in America. He said that he had tried to calm her fears, telling her that he was having a nice dinner with a folksinger. I smiled and asked if that helped, but he looked at me a little sheepishly and shook his head, and then with a bit more seriousness said, “She worries about having a son working in the United States, she always says to me, “Americans are such a violent people. Please be careful they can carry guns almost everywhere now.” It was a hard moment, but I eventually had to close my eyes and nod, “If I were your mother, I’d be worried too.”

From the perspective of that mother in Canada (or really any industrialized country in the world), we appear to be a people that do not love our children enough to make it impossible for someone to purchase a military style weapon and carry it in some states pretty much unencumbered. Automatic and semi-automatic guns are not hunting tools. These weapons have absolutely no other use than to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. As a country we have not seen fit to limit military style weapons even after our precious children are being gunned down regularly while learning their ABCs. It is beyond that mother’s understanding, and honestly…it is beyond my understanding as well.

How could a mother from outside our country not make the assumption that we must not love and cherish our children enough to ban or seriously limit the possession of military style fire arms? How could that mother not assume that the majority of Americans feel that the tragic losses of innocent lives of all ages in shopping malls, schools, colleges, places of worship, movie theaters, concerts, conferences, public buildings and parks is a reasonable trade off for having unfettered access to weapons designed for the one purpose of killing living human beings at mind numbing speeds?

But the truth is polls show that the majority of Americans do support common sense gun laws, limiting or outright banning military style weapons. The majority of Americans do love their children and are asking their legislators to do the right thing. What we do not have are legislators who are willing to listen to the majority of their constituents and do the right thing. What we do have are legislators who are willing to exchange the precious lives for NRA contributions.

I am bewildered and righteously angry that a certain segment of our legislators seem to feel that their sole avenue for “protecting” our children is to ban books from public and school libraries that honor our diverse racial, cultural and sexual orientations in this country, to ban the teaching of the true and real complicated history of the country (which is the first step in healing and moving forward as an educated nation), and to institute whole rafts of laws that discriminate, endanger and humiliate people of diverse sexual orientation . These are often the same legislators who wear AK15 pins on their lapels as they boldly proclaim themselves to be“pro-life”. This is an odd disconnect at best and terrible hypocrisy at worse.

Sometimes you just have to call something what it is, because if ideas go unchallenged there is an assumption that they are true, or at least normalized. What we are seeing in terms of weekly mass shootings and access to military style weapons is an aberration, not the norm among industrialized countries of the world.

So today I don’t just want to vent, I want to speak truth as I see it. I want to encourage all of us to feel empowered to speak up, write our legislators and vote them out of office when they exchange love, safety and decency to all humans for political power or campaign financing.

Here is a link to The American Psychological Society. This is a non-partisan organization that helps people responsibly contact their legislators with concerns and requests. It has links to where you can find contact information for legislators in your state. I wrote all my legislators this week, encouraging them to support commonsense gun legislation. I know that I am one voice, but it takes every drop in a bucket to finally spill the water over the rim. You are a drop in the bucket, your voice might be the one that tips the balance toward positive change.

Note….this post takes about 5 minutes to read. It took approximately 2 minutes for the shooter to kill 10 people and injure 3 others at a Buffalo supermarket.

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Question

I believe we need to hear stories of when our advocacy for others worked. It is easy to feel overwhelmed or helpless. But we are not helpless, we have great power in how we choose to live our daily lives. I would love to hear your stories of working with others for a common goal, one that may have even surprised you.

So what’s your story of coming together to help a friend, build a barn, support an organization, make your neighborhood a little kinder place, support your child’s school or the arts in your town?

Example - I was part of a small group of people that started a benefit for our local food called “The Soup Bowl Benefit”. Local potters donated handmade bowls, local restaurants and bakeries donated bread and cookies. People purchased a ticket and got to pick out a beautiful bowl and have a simple soup and bread dinner (with music of course). All the profits went to the local food bank. Now, over 25 years later, we are one of the biggest contributors to our local food bank each year. People come with with their children and grandchildren. And it all started with 6 people saying, “lets do something to help.”

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Hey Folks, The Growing Edge is now on Substack!

If you have enjoyed The Growing Edge Podcast Parker J. Palmer and I have just launched our Substack newsletter. Get The Growing Edge Newsletter with information about Parker J. Palmer Events, our newsletter and commentary, TGE Podcast and opportunities to join in the conversation about our posts and podcast episodes! Here is the Link to sign up to receive The Growing Edge Newsletter

In this podcast, Carrie and Parker talk with author Scott Russell Sanders about his new book Small Marvels. Scott’s work often explores the spirit of place, our relationship with the natural world, and creating communities of care and generosity rather a culture of fear and division. In this episode we talk about what inspired the stories in this lovely work, and share thoughts about the power of story and creativity. I hope you’ll join us for this heart-opening conversation.

For more information about Scott Russell Sanders, his luminous writing and how to find his books or attend a workshop. Official Scott Russell Sanders Website and here is a direct link for Small Marvels

TOUR SCHEDULE

Tickets are going fast for these shows! Get your tickets soon. Here’s the link to my website tour page for tix information. Carrie’s Tour Page

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New Album “A Great Wild Mercy” Coming in September.

I’m so excited to be at Airtime Studio and The Hundredth Hill in May to record my new album. I'll be recording with such a talented group of musicians. I look forward to sending you updates!

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