Texas

By: Sarah Mason, deputy executive director of Clean Energy for America.

Where do I even begin? To be honest, I struggled for a day and a half over whether or not we at Clean Energy for America should even say anything at all following the news out of Uvalde, Texas. Was it right to speak out on something that “isn’t our lane”? What could we say that the many organizations and individuals dedicated to gun safety hadn’t already said more eloquently than we could?

At the end of the day, though, saying nothing — staying silent in the wake of a preventable tragedy – felt wrong. Nineteen innocent children and two brave teachers no longer have a voice. They cannot speak up and ask why we failed to prevent this? Why did we decide their lives didn’t warrant protection? 

But we can. So, now it’s our responsibility to use our voice, to urge this country and our elected leaders to action. In fact it is past time to act. 

I was in high school when Columbine happened. People use that moment now as the baseline, the turning point from when school shootings went from a rarity to the new normal. But do you know what I remember about that day? I remember I wasn’t surprised. 

Scared? Angry? Sad? Yes. But not surprised. I remember how shocked the media and the adults around me were. How they were talking about the shooting like it was an isolated incident. An outlier. Wrote it off as an act by two “unstable” teenagers. Banned trench coats and backpacks as a “safety measure” instead of guns. But even at sixteen I knew their response was wrong. I knew that what had happened at Columbine could just as easily happen at my high school – at any school across the country. Because I knew how easy it was for any individual to access a gun. 

And it happened again. It kept happening. Santee. New Orleans. Red Lake. West Nickel Mines. Virginia Tech. DeKalb. Oakland. Chardon.  And then Newtown. Newtown.  A day so dark and unfathomable it should have changed everything. It changed nothing. Santa Monica. Marysville. Umpqua. Flagstaff. Townville. North Park. Aztec. Benton. Parkland. Santa Fe. Highlands Ranch. Saugus. Oxford. Uvalde.

Enough. 

Are we really going to stand by yet again and do nothing while our children are murdered in their classrooms? Are we going to let a handful of politicians hold us at a standstill? 

I don’t know about all of you, but that doesn’t sit well with me. I know this isn’t the type of content people come to CE4A’s blog for. Or the type of activity you look to us to engage on. But I also imagine that many of you – like me – do what you do at least in part to make a better future for the next generation. 

And right now, elected officials — largely representing one political party — are allowing conditions to remain in place where too many beautiful lives are cut terribly short. They are failing to protect our country’s most vulnerable citizens. And we need to hold them accountable. We need to speak up on behalf of the children of Uvalde, Newtown, Parkland, and all the others who cannot. 

So please join me and CE4A in calling on Congress to pass meaningful gun safety legislation NOW. Call your Representatives and Senators. Tweet at them. Email them. 

And for all those leaders who continue to stonewall these efforts, bowing to special interests? Well, November is coming.