On October 3rd 2015 CNN published an article about gun deaths in the United States. In it they noted that President Barack “Obama has delivered statements on gun violence 15 times during his presidency. After the latest shooting, he said the nation had become numb to the carnage.”
Thursday night he issued another statement.
I don’t feel numb, and it wasn’t the only shooting he has made a statement on since that article only 9 months ago. 9 months — the amount of time it takes to bring a life into the world or take thousands out.
Tonight there is grief enough to go around:
Grief for the 50 families who lost loved ones at the Pulse night club; out of the news cycle yet still immersed if pain. The grief of the families of Anton Sterling and Philando Castille as their deaths are replayed time and again on social media tonight, much of America is asking how can this be just? The grief of the families of the five officers killed at the (what had been peaceful) #Black Lives Matter protest; one officer is still in surgery as I write, and three in critical condition.
There is grief enough to go around.
These 57 deaths I just mentioned in the previous paragraph are a drop in the bucket of everyday life and gun death in America. In 2014 there were 33,599 reported deaths by gun violence. I couldn’t find the total for last year. In 2015 I imagine the number was similar but another statistic that stood out to me tonight in particular was gun deaths by law enforcement.
The Guardian reported that of the tens of thousands of gun deaths last year 467 were committed by police and, of these deaths, 136 were African American. In that same time period 123 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty.
Already in 2016 we have had 227 mass shootings in America. A mass shooting is defined as “four or more people being shot in one event.” This year — this unfinished year, 2016 — we have already had 227 mass shootings. And we have five months to go!
So when I say there is grief enough to go around I mean it in a very real, not dismissive, way.
If it really matters why they died let’s go deeper than our own political, religious and racial biases. According to the media, really the only source most of us have access to, of the 57 deaths I specifically mentioned, 49 were killed because they were in a gay bar, one was the man who killed them we believe because of his religious beliefs, two were racially motivated and five were because they were law enforcement. In short: rainbow lives, black lives or blue lives — this isn’t solely about guns, racism or privilege — it’s about hate.
We have a hate problem, America.
Whether you hate the gays, the blacks, the blues, gun owners or the religious bigot, it still comes down to hate. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King once proclaimed in his sermon Strength to Love, “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
So while I appreciate the #gaypride, #blacklivesmatter and #bluelivesmatter movements raising awareness of homophobia, racism and the cost of serving in law enforcement, I am also aware of the common root — hate and fear of those who are different from oneself.
Grieving for all of them is not mutually exclusive! I can grieve for fallen officers and victims of racism and homophobia. Grief does not belong to one oppressed people. And we should be grieving tonight, America. Because it seems like once again hate wins. Except … except, as I often preach, “death is not the end of the story.”
The story is ours to write. As for me, I choose to write a different narrative. Not of hate. Not of blame. But of commitment. I recommit myself to trying to understand those who are different from me. I recommit myself to trying to understand what privileges my race brings. I recommit myself to trying to understand the struggle those coming from a different place of authority must act out of.
I’m not going to blame. I am going to choose love and be the change I want to see in the world, because at the end of the day you cannot control anyone else, but you can control how you will respond.
A prayer for this day:
“Gracious God, we seem to have perfected hate down here. Forgive us. Help us to choose love. Love for all — rainbow lives, black lives, blue lives, and every other color. This grief and hate and pain belongs to us all. And yet even the least among us can choose love and tip the balance in so doing.
Perfect us in love. Amen.
Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth serves as pastor for Clearlake and Middletown Community United Methodist Churches
