Enough!

I've been looking at the pictures of those children in Texas. Looking, too, at the pictures of the teachers who went to school that day and never came home.

As a teacher, I've lived in dread of such a day. I've done the school drills, gotten the children to huddle in the corner out of sight of the door, scanned the playground for escape routes. As if we were in a war zone, not a school where children should be safe and protected.

I look at those children, just the ages of the kids in my classes, and my heart breaks.

There's something terribly wrong with a society who fails to protect its children. When innocent people walking down a grocery aisle or praying in a pew are shot.

But in this country, money speaks louder at the tables of power than the children who have the most to lose. Greed, power, and cold, hard cash have eaten away at the foundations of our safety and good sense.

And while the laws have faded away, the guns have multiplied. Guns are all around us: in jacket pockets, in bedside stands and boxes in closets. Guns are flaunted on Christmas cards and sold in corner stores. When I hear the sound of gunfire and screams in our movies and TV shows, do you know what I hear? I hear the symptoms of a festering sickness. We're sick with our addiction to violence and our love of guns.

Don't you dare tell me that guns make us safe. The headlines prove you wrong. Just having a gun in your house makes it more likely someone will use it - not on an intruder, but on someone they love.

Behind the horrible shooting this week in Texas are thousands of other stories that never make the papers. The teen who comes home from school and gives in to despair. The little kid who plays with Dad's gun and shoots his sister. The furious husband or wife who snatches up a gun in the heat of an argument. The moment a horrible impulse turns into an act that lasts forever, never to be erased. In an instant lives are ruined and hearts broken.

So here is a message for every one of our leaders who have voted against gun safety laws:

Look at them. Here are the children and their teachers, the grandparents and neighbors and innocent bystanders. These are just a few of the innocent people whose deaths you might have prevented. Look at them.

Don't turn away. If you can vote to put their lives at risk, the least you can do is look at their pictures.

Don't talk to me about thoughts and prayers. They don't want your thoughts and prayers. It's too late for that.

Don't tell me how shocked and horrified you are. You want to know what shock and horror is? Go talk with their parents. Go sit with their families.

I think they may have some questions for you, once they can speak again. Perhaps it's time to show them where you got your money for your campaigns. Perhaps you should talk about your voting record, and tell them why you voted against laws that might have made sure their kids were still alive today.

We hold you, every one of you, to blame for this outrage. And I promise you, I and millions of others are going to make sure people remember in the next election. I'm going to take them in with me into the voting booth, and that's where I plan to put my thoughts and prayers into action.

This has to end. Enough!