As we listened to music Friday night,
my playlist shuffled to a song I hadn't listened to in a while, and I
found it especially fitting considering my thoughts of the day.
Was a time I remember
Hope flashed and went dim
When assassins just happened
To do the right people in
And love was a slogan
Coincidentally
And they told us they'd work it out
Eventually
These opening lines of “Eventually”
by Carole King reminded me just how long this type of violence has
been going on. Three decades before the Colombine High School
shooting spree woke me to the realization that such violence can
happen, there were the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., John
F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. Since then, tragic violence has tended
to gravitate towards wounding large numbers of civilians. High school
students. Teachers. Family members. College kids. Kindergartners.
“Hope flashed and went dim” describes how it is easy to feel when
these things happen.
In the swing of changing time
A man cried out for his
And every politician said
He was telling us like it is
Yes, they walked down the angry streets
To have themselves a look-see
And they told us they'd work it out
Eventually
Already, politicians on each side of
the aisle are taking advantage of the situation to further their
agendas. One side calls for gun restrictions, the other side says we
should arm and train public school teachers. One side blames a
pervasive gun culture, the other blames individuals. And both sides
will claim that the other side was the first to politicize it.
I see the choking cities
I see them tearing up this earth
I see people feelin'
That their lives have little worth
I think Carole King wrote this verse about cities choking in smog, but what about cities choking back
tears? What about cities choking on violence; untreated, severe
mental illness; and hatred? We have done a lot to clean our air and
water. What can we, as a society, do to recognize the worth of a soul
and act accordingly?
My favorite verse, the last, gives a
little hope:
And I know that the future
Depends on you and me
I hope we can work it out
Eventually
The world my son inherits will be the
world created by me and other adults. I know I want to help the world
become a little safer, a little more loving, and a little more
prepared to prevent these acts of violence than the world that has
manifest itself in the past 10 to 20 years. I won't pretend here to
know exactly how to do this, or to have time to expound on how I
think it could be accomplished, or to have some mega inspirational
words. But I know I will do something to try to change the culture
and affect individuals in such a way to move us away from this kind
of violence. I hope you will do what you can, too.
I just hope we can work it out
Eventually
