Dear Elected Members of Government,

I am writing to you with much grief in my heart. This morning I awoke to the horror of seeing the aftermath of yet another school massacre (the Texas school massacre in the city of Uvalde) and it took all of my strength to take my two children (the absolute loves of my life) to their school today. It took everything in me not to grab them and run back to the safety of our home.

As we approached the school I could tell that there were less students present than usual. My guess is that many parents felt as I did, that their children’s school was not safe enough. It is clear that all of the drills that these children participate in are never going to match up to an assault weapon and a person with a mission to murder them.

After waving goodbye to them I saw one of their teachers, who told me that I had done the right thing. She told me that we cannot allow these people to keep us from living our lives and that our school was safe and no, that I didn’t need to stay parked in my car, in front of school in order to protect my children from terrorists. She comforted me. She, the teacher that is underpaid, under appreciated and who has almost no voice, comforted ME before entering that school with my babies.

YOU are in a place of privilege. A place that holds a lot of power. A place where you can make lasting positive changes that directly affect society. Your power can decide on life or death.

I ask that you choose life. I ask that you protect our citizens and give our most vulnerable the ability to live in peace as they work towards educating themselves and enriching our community. I ask that you question your fears over not addressing this issue with action. Or if you are doing something, I ask you to ask yourself if it is enough. Because we all know that even one life lost means that you are not doing enough.

Ironically I do believe that you might find that your fears do not have as much merit as you might have first believed. I say this because I believe that you would have the support of millions of people if you were just brave enough to DO something to make a change.

So I ask that you pray in the comfort of your own homes and that when you leave them, you come out speaking publicly about the solutions that only you can make. It is time for you to be brave and to risk everything for those precious lives, and their loved ones, that have lost everything. We do not need your hope, we need your actions, and those results should be seen in proof of life.

Sincerely,

Danielle