We want our children back

Image from Linda Tisdale

This morning

FB offered this mournful song

From Jason Shelton:
(click name to listen)

We want our children back

We want our children back

There are too many

Gone too soon.

Shelton wrote it for the

Fifth anniversary

Of the death of 20 tiny children

Gunned down by a broken young man

Who stormed into their elementary school

To kill anyone he met

He had already killed his mother

He killed himself in the end.

We want our children back

Many gone too soon.

As I hear Jason sing the song

From his piano

Where he ministers beyond the walls

Of just one community

To communities at large

I think of the layers

Of the words’ meaning

We want our children back

Wail mothers and fathers the world over

And for so long

We want our children back

Cry grandmothers and grandfathers

From the slave plantations in the American south

We want our children back

Howl sisters and brothers, cousins

From Chicago, Boston, New York, Los Angeles

We want our children back

Moan spiritual leaders in mosques, temples, and churches

From street corners and in the halls of government

We want our children back

We want our friends back

Scream survivors of yet another massacre

Has it always been this way?

Whether the weapon was a gun, a slap, a punch, a stick, a word?

From tyrant, king, demon-filled soul; father?

In the Hebrew Scriptures, Jeremiah prophesies:

"A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more."

And so I wonder,

When and how will we

Mourning and weeping

When and how will we

Refuse to be comforted

Refuse to be quieted

And instead sing and work and demand:

We want our children back

Too many gone too soon

And make it stop!