Prayer, love needed to make schools safe

Gun control is not the answer. If students could hear their teachers pray for their safety, hear their teacher call their name out to God, hear their teacher asking God to help them know and care about each other, hear their teacher pray that they can resist bullying and to help them understand why it might be that they would feel the need to do that, hear their teacher asking God to help them understand what would be taught that day, hear their teacher praying for them to succeed — it just might decrease, if not end, the mass school shootings.

Are the phrases “under God” and “In God we trust” just empty words? Prayer changes things— for the better. The day it became against the law to allow it in school was truly a killer.

Student marches are also not the answer. It seems to me that will widen the distance between those students who feel secure/empowered and those who do not — making those who do not more likely to strike out in unacceptable ways.

If the secure/empowered ones would, in real love, reach out — not down — to the students who are struggling with their self-worth it could be a giant step in stopping gun violence in school. Let’s try prayer and love.

The situation our nation is facing reminds me of a question I once heard: “If your house was flooded because you forgot to turn off a faucet, and you had a bucket, broom and mop, what would you do first?” Of course, the obvious answer is to first turn off the faucet. Our nation needs to get to the heart of the problem instead of pushing gun control and promoting marches.

KAREN SMITH

Fayetteville