I’m Sorry I Have to Tell You This Again

Dear Baby Girl, I’m sorry.  I know that I sound like a broken record, but I must talk to you again.  I know that you don’t want to talk about it – again – because no one, including me, likes to talk about it.  But, my darlin’, we must talk because we are left with  few other choices but to talk about this yet again.  So, pull up a chair, and let’s talk.

Take a seat, and let’s talk.

Can I be honest with you?  I’m shook.  I’m really shook to the core.

When you were a baby, I wrote in your baby book these words:  “May you be happy, healthy, safe, and sound.”  Well, today’s talk – yes, a broken record indeed, I’m sorry to say – is a safety talk.  You know me – I want to do everything that I can as your mother to make sure that you are safe.

When you were younger, we talked a lot about safety.

Don’t put your hand in the fire.  Look both ways when you cross the street.  Chew your food thoroughly before you swallow.

Remember when you were seven years old?

We talked then, too, about safety.  But, that time, the safety talk was different, very different from all of the rest, because of the terror at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT.  Because 26 people – 20 students and 6 adults – were shot and killed in a school.

After Sandy Hook, after we talked, I hoped – really prayed – that something would change, but nothing changed.  Honestly, after Columbine when I was a teacher in the 1990’s, I hoped – really prayed – that something would change, but nothing changed.  After Columbine occurred, I clearly remember walking into my classroom, going back to teach the day after it happened, acting like nothing happened.  But, I was different.  Other teachers were different. Most teachers were shook to the core. Most teachers couldn’t believe that our sacred space – which many considered as sacred as church – was gone.  And, yet nothing has changed.

So, today, I sit with you today to remind you what to do if there is someone with a gun – specifically an active shooter –

• at school (8-18 shootings so far in 2018).
• at church (Sutherland Springs, TX, in the fall of 2017).
• at the movie theater (Aurora, CO, in 2012).
• at a concert or sporting event (Las Vegas, NV, in the fall of 2017).

1. Remember to run if you can.
2. Remember to hide if you can.
3. Remember to fight to harm – with all that you’ve got – if you can’t run or hide.
4. Remember to play dead if you can’t run, hide, or fight.

I can’t believe that I am having to talk to you about this again.  But, I do so – keep talking about what to do – because nothing has changed.