On guns and trauma

Also: Reckoning with 1 million Americans dead from COVID-19 [View in browser](    [❤️]( May 29, 2022 Dear Cog reader, On Tuesday morning, 19 children and two teachers were murdered in Uvalde, Texas. On Wednesday afternoon, I got an email from my daughters’ elementary school. The subject line was “emergency response plan” and the email detailed the various ways our school intends to keep kids safe from an active shooter. There was a rundown of ALICE protocols (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and/or Evacuate), lockdown drills and shelter-in-place procedures. I understood why our school district saw fit to send the email, and it still struck me as absolutely surreal. How are my second graders — who struggle to zip their winter coats, who still believe in the tooth fairy — supposed to defend themselves against somebody with a gun? How is this the plan? I’ve covered several mass shootings during my time at Cog: Parkland, Tree of Life, El Paso, Oxford High School, Capital Gazette, Atlanta, Boulder. There are so many I can’t remember them all. For me, the process is the same every time. A news alert flashes across my phone. I read, watch and listen for facts. I scroll Twitter and Instagram. I scan for remembrances of the dead: Layla Salazar, 10, was a fast runner who won six races at Robb Elementary's field day. Geraldine Chapman Talley, 62, was famous for her homemade cheesecake. Then my mind wanders to horrible places: what the victims heard and smelled in their final moments, what the bullets did to their bodies, how there’s no guarantee such gruesome violence couldn’t visit my community, my family. And then the numbness sets in. I have to do my job. We’ve got to figure out who can write with wisdom and expertise to help us find a notion of understanding and truth. We have to keep believing that stories can make a difference. This week, we have three pieces about the school shooting in Texas: Pulitzer-winner Eileen McNamara weighs in on the [politics of the moment]( Megan Ranney, a physician and academic dean at Brown University, takes us [into the emergency room]( and Dorothy R. Novick, a pediatrician, writes about what assault style weapons do to bodies. It’s difficult to read — it was difficult for her to write — but maybe the [unsanitized reality of death]( is what’s required in a polarized debate over guns that seems impervious to reams of facts and data. We’ll be sharing more essays on guns and trauma in the days to come. Also this week: Reckoning with 1 million Americans dead from COVID-19. There is no simple way to count that high, writes Rev. Laura Everett: “What I’m worried about now is that we are failing to stop and notice each life. Each death. We hopscotched back to ‘normal’ without really acknowledging what we’ve lost.” Whether or not you consider yourself a person of faith, I hope this essay offers some comfort. As Laura writes, the loss we’ve all experienced in the last two-plus years is [too much for anyone of us to hold](. The only way she’s found to go on is to slow down and take care of one another. Until soon, Cloe Cloe Axelson Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [We have to stop sanitizing the carnage of mass shootings]( Assault weapons are designed for only one thing, writes Dorothy R. Novick:to savagely and decisively tear human bodies apart. It is gruesome and traumatic and feels impossible to face, but it is what we need to be talking about. [Read more.]( [We have to stop sanitizing the carnage of mass shootings]( Assault weapons are designed for only one thing, writes Dorothy R. Novick:to savagely and decisively tear human bodies apart. It is gruesome and traumatic and feels impossible to face, but it is what we need to be talking about. [Read more.]( [1 million dead is too many for anyone to comprehend]( Those of us who have lived through the COVID-19 pandemic will spend the rest of our days trying to make sense of what we have endured, writes Rev. Laura Everett. I don’t know if we’ll find answers, but I think we’ll spend the rest of our lives asking. [Read more.]( [1 million dead is too many for anyone to comprehend]( Those of us who have lived through the COVID-19 pandemic will spend the rest of our days trying to make sense of what we have endured, writes Rev. Laura Everett. I don’t know if we’ll find answers, but I think we’ll spend the rest of our lives asking. [Read more.]( [Lessons I've learned on the frontlines of the gun violence epidemic]( The first step is grieving in ways that neither add to the immense trauma nor that further divide us from our friends and communities, writes Megan Ranney. [Read more.]( [Lessons I've learned on the frontlines of the gun violence epidemic]( The first step is grieving in ways that neither add to the immense trauma nor that further divide us from our friends and communities, writes Megan Ranney. [Read more.]( [I've been trying to explain America to Afghan refugees. It's not going wellÂ]( Health insurance, credit cards, the cost of college — many of America's fundamental industries and institutions feel like Rube Goldberg contraptions, writes Julie Wittes Schlack. They're not only inefficient, they're inexplicable. [Read more.]( [I've been trying to explain America to Afghan refugees. It's not going wellÂ]( Health insurance, credit cards, the cost of college — many of America's fundamental industries and institutions feel like Rube Goldberg contraptions, writes Julie Wittes Schlack. They're not only inefficient, they're inexplicable. [Read more.]( [Compassionate release for aging prisoners isn't enough]( Massachusetts has an older prisoner population than most of the country. Older prisoners, writes Sarah Laughlin, need more help returning to society. [Read more.]( [Compassionate release for aging prisoners isn't enough]( Massachusetts has an older prisoner population than most of the country. Older prisoners, writes Sarah Laughlin, need more help returning to society. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "Is this where the American dream dies — not on a battlefield, but in our own homes and schools, by our own hands and the hands of our neighbors?" "[National suicide plays out one murderous mass shooting at a time]( The Los Angeles Times. "When guns are everywhere, the people who own them become capable of enacting violence in the manner of their choosing." [A child can’t be a 'good guy with a gun]( " Vox. "I am not aware of any time in American history when the court acknowledged a fundamental personal right and then took it away. But here we are." "[I am a gay man, and I sense danger coming]( The Boston Globe. "We serve as witnesses to their world being turned upside down. " — Megan Ranney, "[Lessons I've learned on the frontlines of the gun violence epidemic]( ICYMI [My Nazi grandfather wanted to cleanse his legacy. What his story tells me about this historical moment]( Attempts to control the way we remember history are a sign of hypernationalism, writes Julie LIndahl. Our democracy is in trouble. [Read more.]( [My Nazi grandfather wanted to cleanse his legacy. What his story tells me about this historical moment]( Attempts to control the way we remember history are a sign of hypernationalism, writes Julie LIndahl. Our democracy is in trouble. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2022 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.