On June 20, 2015, following the Charleston Mother AME shootings on June 17, 2015, I wrote to help my mind and my heart process the sheer hideousness of the crime. Combing through old files I ran across those written words following that fearful, awful day. I re-read it and felt a wave of shock. The killings never stopped, never paused. It's even worse. Reload, repeat, over and over again--mass murders, single murders, suicides, old people, young people, tender children, gone forever. Those who survive indelibly maimed in body, in spirit. All the friends and families and communities hurt in the worst ways. A whole nation, our America stained by letting it happen. 

I wanted to celebrate the good milestones of young people growing up in my family with this posting. Instead, I'll set those words and images aside for a while in respect for those lost on Monday to gun violence. With love for them, for the many others who have likewise fallen, and for all those who loved and cared for them, I bow my head.

It doesn't have to be this way.