D
ear Little Bird Families,
There are no words for the grief we all feel.
How do you feel? For me, there’s sorrow. Sorrow for the families who will grieve for the rest of their lives. Sorrow that we live in a country I once felt proud of, but which has become a place that’s fraught with greed and willingness to dismiss the needs of our most vulnerable – our children. There’s fear. Fear that this will continue to happen. There’s rage that I have never felt. I hope to turn that rage into positive change. I want you to know that however you feel right now, you are not alone.
In honor of the victims, here is a link to their stories.
Here are some resources you might find helpful as you help your kids navigate:
When you bring your babies to class, we’ll put all of this away and we’ll dance and sing and we’ll make music. And this will help us all heal too.
After I got the news I took the opportunity to call my senators. The lines were jammed and I had to leave messages. That’s good. I hope the lines will be jammed for however many weeks and months it takes to enact real change. I urged them to support a Senate vote on HR 8 (The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021) and HR 1446 (The Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021).
After each phone call I sobbed. I thought, “What? I was going to feel better!” I think what was really happening is that the power that it took to actually do something about this mess came squirting out my eyes. It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to feel afraid. It’s okay to feel rage. Acting on that rage in a way that can help create change, may be what you’d like to do. If you do, here’s a link to find out who your senators are, and to give them a call. I’m saving their numbers in my phone, and putting a reminder on my calendar to call them every week.
Because in a few days and weeks, the pain will subside, the rage will die down, and we’ll go on with our lives. This is how we survive. We can’t feel these things all the time. But we can continue to act to create change.
Sending you all my love,
Holly
Photo by KSAT.com
