Bridge of Wills

Today is Monday, the first day of the week for many, where parents, and especially students, groggily fight their want to sleep in, the rush to get ready as parents yell out to kids to hurry up or be late. The drive to school, the morning breakfast, and the numerous (I can attest) efforts on the part of students to stay home because they either don’t want to go or forgot to do their homework. Arrival, kissing goodbye, parting for a few hours 8 usually to learn in school, and as soon as it begins, the immediate excitement at the thought of leaving and on the part of parents excitement to hear what happened during the school day. A typical Monday looks like this, but for many parents on days just like these throughout the past few years, a typical day melts and becomes an inferno no parent should ever have to suffer; the last time they see their child alive. Today, Monday, the last day they ever see their child smiling and alive, the last time they’ll kiss their forehead, the last time they hear the groggy complaints in the morning, the last day they’ll say to them the best words a parent could say ‘I love you”. On many Mondays just like these, those smiles were robbed from us, those futures and their prospects cruelly stolen by madmen possessed by evil with no regard for human life. Today, Monday, the beginning of the week and, for many, the last day of their life.

We in America face a problem that shows the moral and ethical degradation that seeps into the very foundation of what makes a nation. A dire situation that costs lives reflects the straying away from the values of family and community, instead replaced by a culture that values violence over civility and, with open arms, embraces it. An issue that reflects upon the depravity that has now become mainstream, where thought and learning are replaced with a sickened sense of senseless violence embraced by many facets of society, an embrace that has pushed many to the brink and thus harming all those around them. That issue is gun violence, and every year thousands suffer as a result; senseless violence that touches all, young and old, rich and poor, with no discrimination towards color or creed, depravity without bounds, a symptom of a degraded society.

In 2021, the CDC reported 49,000 people died to gun violence (Center for Disease Control); this is an absolutely tragic figure, and speaks to the heart of the problem. This a sad demonstration of what occurs when society and culture embrace violence and depravity with open arms, when civilized talk to resolve conflicts and disputes is discouraged and solved with violence. As a society and culture, we are a sick patient needing immediate treatment or risk getting sicker or worse. We must resolve ourselves with our full might and dedication to alleviating this existential problem.The solution comes from the bottom up, at the dinner table, the car rides, the family barbecues, and discussions with neighbors and friends. We must instill again the values that have marked our ascent as the greatest nation in history, second to none. We have a solemn duty as educators, friends, parents, brothers, and sisters to teach these values and to heal divisions to fix our culture. On a policy level, we must construct that bridge of wills that has moved the country forward in its history to create bipartisan, commonsense solutions to manage this problem. We need not be divisive; universal background checks, opening up more mental health support systems to help those on the brink, and increasing school safety are all things we can do to fight this problem. Action is needed now. How long will we allow this to continue? How many more Mondays will be the last for many? How much more heartbreak will many need to experience? A bridge of wills, now more than ever, is required to combat this problem from the top down and the bottom up; we must stand a house united or fall a house divided. The choice is America’s to make.