“The fatal shooting at Apalachee High School on September 4, 2024, was the 45th school shooting in the U.S. in 2024. The shooting, in which two 14-year-old students and two teachers in Winder, Georgia, were killed, was also the 385th mass shooting in America in 2024, an average of 1.5 mass shootings per day.” This is the opening of an article from Newsweek on MSN.com. The same trite phrases and demands are spoken after each one of these tragedies. The same responses – the same anger – the same defensiveness – the same old same old nothing being done. The lack of balance in American life continues; we call it siloing, but what it really is is an unwillingness to see that there is more than one side to every story. We lack balance.
I can recognize Israel’s right to exist and defend itself and fight to free the hostages and still mourn in horror at the tens of thousands of deaths of Palestinians. Balance. I can defend a woman’s right to control what happens to her body and still see why those who oppose abortion continue to work to lessen them. Balance. I can believe that one’s sexuality and gender are a gift from God and still understand why some people do not, based on their faith perspective. Balance. I can eat meat and respect those who don’t. Balance. I can want a strong military and universal health care. We lack balance, and it is literally killing us.
I want everyone entering this country to be vetted, but I don’t want them put in cages, sleeping on the floor. I want to practice my religion without being told it is wrong. I want the right to not carry a gun or feel afraid because someone I don’t know is brandishing a weapon in public. Balance. The Constitution was written with a sense of balance, but it was also written to be made better with time. A well-armed militia does not mean America should be the wild west. It also doesn’t mean that we should ban guns. We have tests to allow people to drive cars; why can’t we agree that the same should be done for guns? Balance.
Until we can see each other’s points of views and understand them, we will remain unbalanced. We will continue to be seen as the world’s thugs as we turn the sale of weapons and war-machines into a cottage industry. We will continue to watch children’s coffins being lowered into the ground after yet another school shooting. Unbalanced people get help; unbalanced nations should do the same. We are suffering from mental illness, and we need to get so we can find balance once again.
Prayer – Holy God, there are no words to say how sad and lost we are. Help us find balance. Amen.
Today’s art is “Create Balance” by Maggie Stephenson.