In 16 seconds, community can forever change

Children deserve better than this lack of action on school shootings

Readers, do a little exercise with me. Close your eyes and count off 16 seconds. It’s a very small window of time, isn’t it?

According to a report in USA Today, Thursday’s school shooting in Santa Clarita, Calif., took only 16 seconds.

A 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy lost their lives, three others were injured and the attacker – a boy who turned 16 himself that day – died later at a hospital by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

All of that death and sadness took only 16 seconds.

Yet in that brief time frame, an entire community has been hit, another town forever changed by yet another school shooting.

I don’t want to get into the blame game here.

I could pontificate all day long about Congress’ inability to reach across the aisle to one another to work on common sense gunrelated legislation.

I could wax poetic about an America that has become desensitized to this violence, both in our country

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and in our schools.

I could rally against a culture that is allowing children and teens to become isolated silos, where empathy is in short supply, where we don’t reach or react until it’s much, much too late.

I could push back against “thoughts and prayers” because a phrase that should give comfort now infuriates me – it’s a pat action instead of taking real action.

But I’m tired. And frankly, my heart just hurts. As a parent, I want our schools to be a safe place for our children to grow and learn and thrive. Each of these shootings reminds me that as a nation, we’ve got so far to go before “safe schools” truly exist.

In my 16 seconds, I took four deep breaths. I thought about my daughter’s smile, her kindness, her sense of humor, and bond we have with her, and I cried.

Close your eyes, count off your 16 seconds, and think about what matters in this world. Now open your eyes, and do something about it. Call your legislators, and tell them it’s time to take action. Our children deserve better, and it’s up to us to make it happen.