Commentary

The number of dead resulting from gun violence of all kinds is staggering. There were 692 mass shootings in 2021, the most since 2014, when the Gun Violence Archive began keeping records.

This Memorial Day, I’m commemorating the life of Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. In terms of recognition and admiration he is second only to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

I know that we are the lucky ones. Many other young people — children — have had their lives stolen from them. The parents of 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas, aren’t consoling their kids in their loss of innocence, but are being consoled in their grief following the loss of their children.

I sit here today wondering what words I can possibly offer, yet again, to the tragedy of children, killed by another youth using guns, at an elementary school.

We re-awaken from this regular nightmare of guns and shootings and mass death, and as yet, we have not learned anything.

Like most Americans, I grew up with a Memorial Day viewed as a long weekend at the start of summer season and not a sacred commemoration of the country’s war dead.