The angry grandmother wishes for a New Year  – Tennessee Lookout

At the end of each year I reflect on the good and bad times I have experienced and I begin making my wishes — rather than resolutions — for the new year. 

This year has been memorable for many of us as we’ve  welcomed new births into our community and we buried innocents who were tragically killed by gun violence. That is just not acceptable. 

My grandchildren are celebrating the holidays away from Larry and me this year in what I pray will be fun and safe environments.  I miss them but I am so very lucky because my grandchildren are alive and well.

Other families in my community and across the world must get through this holiday season without their children because their child was killed by a gun. A parent never gets over this. My mother said we are not supposed to outlive our children, that to bury a child is out of the order of our life cycle. 

Parents bury their children everyday because of cancer, accidents and heartbreaking medical conditions. Our world raises money to fight these diseases and we rejoice everytime science comes closer to finding a cure. My wish in 2024 is that Tennesseans demand that we find a cure to stop easy access to guns that result in the death of our children. 

I am at my wits end about how to revise the gun laws in Tennessee. If we cannot change things in Tennessee,  what comfort and hope can we offer to grieving families? 

The supermajority of the Tennessee Legislature is living in a glass bubble of their own making; a snow globe enclosing the Tennessee Capital and offices of the legislature, with members of the legislature who oppose new gun laws, the snowflakes. 

These members isolate themselves from voters who want change.  Never mind that the voters pay the salaries of these legislators. You can shake their snow globe world like the protestors did in the do-nothing August special legislative session. Despite the pleas from parents who have lost children because of guns, the supermajority snow globe would not open their hearts and listen to people outside of their comfort zone. 

Perhaps the gun industry lobbyists are allowed into this snow globe world but those of us who want our children to live in a safer world are not. As a result, nothing changes in such a snowglobe world and that is sad and frustrating. 

If this Angry Grandmother could wave a magic wand, I would wish that we could penetrate the sheltered world in which members of Tennessee’s live.

Imagine a snow globe that opens and welcomes love and change. I ask you, why in the name of all that is holy can’t we find a cure for the addiction of gun obsession in the state of Tennessee? 

Will the cure be to vote out members of the supermajority who are not willing to listen to us despite poll after poll showing Tennesseans want background checks, red flag laws and safe weapon storage?

It has been hard for me this holiday season to find comfort in many traditional Christmas songs that have always brought me inner peace. I picture some of our elected officials singing “Silent Night,” or “Away in a Manger,” and this grandmother becomes angrier. I wish I had the courage to go to the worship place of every Tennessee legislator who has voted against gun reform laws. If I did this, I would probably cry and only ask “Why?” 

How many of our Tennessee legislature attend a worship service on a regular basis? Even if they do not identify as a member of a church, synagogue, or mosque, perhaps they show up for the high holidays to shake hands with their constituents.

Are members of the Republican supermajority praised publicly while they are at a worship service?  Or do people leading service pray to soften the  hearts of people who have hardened theirs about our gun laws and protecting our children? 

I specifically pray to soften the hearts of our leaders who could make our world just a little safer. These prayers are hard for me because I am so angry and I believe our Creator understands how often humans fail.  

I encourage you to join me and tune in and watch your tax dollars at work when the Tennessee Legislature is back in session. Check out https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/livevideo/ and see if members of the Republican supermajority introduce religious leaders as their guests.

I hope that prayers will be lifted up to change the hearts of those who worship the gun industry in 2024, and that voters will take note of those whose hearts don’t change.