By SUSAN K. SMITH
Crazy Faith Ministries
The children who were massacred in Texas are beginning to be buried. There will be 21 funerals in the coming weeks; the bodies will be buried, but the pain, anguish and rage that is attending this disaster will not be buried – not ever.
With the Buffalo massacre, there was no time for police to get to the site before the assailant mowed 10 people down with his assault weapon. Thankfully, the people of Buffalo do not have to deal with real doubt how police acted and reacted. They are free to deal with the reality of the toxicity of white supremacy. That is enough to handle, even as they deal with their grief and anger.
But the Uvalde situation, in the fullness of its horrific tragedy, is different, causing some to ask questions that they would rather not. Why is it that law enforcement officers stood in that school building for an hour, doing nothing, basically, while an active shooter continued his rampage? They were the “good guys with the guns” that the National Rifle Association and gun proponents say is the solution for “bad guys” with guns. If so, why didn’t they stop him? Why didn’t they storm the classroom and take him out?
The official account of what happened keeps changing; it seems like they people in charge are trying to get their stories together, as noted by MSNBC and RollingStone.com.
Outside of the school, police reportedly handcuffed anguished parents who were shocked at the inaction of the police and who wanted nothing more than to save their children, according to a News18.com report. They ignored the cries of the parents, and the police inside apparently ignored the screams of the children.
Why?
Something does not feel right.
We are talking about a police culture that has notoriously used their guns quickly, killing people first and asking questions later. Police shot Breonna Taylor while she was asleep in her bed in her own home. Police shot Walter Scott in the back as he ran from a police officer. Neither was armed, but police shot because they were “in fear for their lives.”
The question that keeps rising to the surface is, “did they hold back intentionally? Did they not react and take the shooter out because those little Brown children did not mean as much to them as little White children would have? Children were in that school calling 911, begging police to come, but they were already there, standing outside the room, doing nothing.
The anguish and rage of the parents is understandable. The fact that police felt like they needed to handcuff parents who wanted to storm the school and get their children is, frankly, disgusting. Why would anyone do that? Where was their compassion, their concern? Did they act like they did – and not act as they should have – because in their minds, even subliminally, they believed these children were not worthy of being saved?
Get angry if you want, but this country has a history of practicing and believing in eugenics. Some have said that the impending overturn of Roe v. Wade is a step toward making sure enough White babies are born to neutralize the large number of Brown and Black people in this country, a fact which has led to the belief that by the mid 2000s, this will no longer be a majority-White nation, according to Brookings.edu.
Quiverfull, a conservative movement that pushes large families, believes that these families are the will of God. Kathryn Joyce, author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, notes that many in this group believe that if every family has 10-12 children, then their brand of Christianity will be able to “take over” in a few years. Joyce says that they believe they’ll “be able to take over both halls of Congress, we’ll be able to reclaim sinful cities like San Francisco for the faithful, and we’ll be able to wage very effective massive boycotts against companies that are going against God’s will,” NPR.com reported.
This country wants to save white supremacy, and will do anything to achieve that goal, maybe even standing inactive while Black or Brown children are slaughtered.
It is not a question anyone wants to consider, but it is valid. And that validity is the saddest thing of all.
The whole story about “what happened?” and how it happened just does not feel right. Not at all.
Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith is the founder and director of Crazy Faith Ministries. She is available for speaking. And she is an award-winning author for her latest book, “With Liberty and Justice for Some: The Bible, the Constitution, and Racism in America,” available through all booksellers. Contact her at revsuekim@sbcgloba.net.