John,
I called Amy as soon as I heard the news. She was in the pickup line at
our daughter’s middle school. “All these kids look so happy,” she said.
“They have no idea.”
What is most damning is that our kids, like many across Texas, seem to
expect it now. Their hearts ache, but they didn’t necessarily seem
surprised when Amy told them. They were 7, 9, and 11 when kids were killed
at Santa Fe high school. 8, 11, and 12 when their fellow El Pasoans were
killed at Walmart. This is their reality and this is their future, unless
we do something about it.
Our broken hearts are with Uvalde. We are with this community, the
families who have had their loved ones taken from them, the parents who
are still waiting to hear whether their child made it out of school alive,
all those who remain in the hospital.
Our thanks is with the first responders, the medical providers, the
community members who continue to do everything they can to save lives and
be there for one another.
But our thoughts and our thanks are not enough. These massacres are not
natural disasters, acts of God, or random. They are totally predictable,
direct consequences of the choices made by Greg Abbott and the majority of
those in the Texas legislature.
The moment to stop Uvalde was right after Sandy Hook. After Santa Fe High.
After El Paso. But instead, Abbott ignored the pleas of law enforcement
and turned his back on our communities by making it easier to carry loaded
guns in public. The moment to stop the next slaughter is right now.
There will be more Uvaldes, El Pasos, Sutherland Springs, and Santa Fes
until we decide to put the lives of our kids ahead of the political
careers of gun lobby politicians like Greg Abbott.
He holds the highest office in the state. He has had seven years to save
lives but has chosen to make matters worse — by rejecting universal
background checks, by opposing red flag laws, by signing permitless carry,
and by doing nothing to protect our communities from gun violence.
The only way to change this is by winning political power so that we can
protect the lives of those in our lives. We win in Texas and it becomes
possible to stop this bloodshed. If we fail in this election, then the
slaughter of children in Uvalde becomes our future.
Beto
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