Sandstorm

There are no words of condolences that will ever save us from ourselves. A message of self reflection on another dark day of our history.

Sandstorm

By

Carlos Lorenzo Estrada 

We have failed our children 

Revealed ourselves to be indifferent to their lives

In the sandstorm of emotions and social ills

The right to bear arms is greater than the right to live

I have no prayers of hope to offer us as a society 

But what I would give is my own life

 In offer for those children who died by a bullet

So that they may breathe again 

Author's Note

I understand the concept of the second amendment, but we live in a different century. There is no way an AR-15 could ever stop a tank or armor our modern army has access and availability to. We need regulations to gun ownership. As a pragmatic and empathetic society we claim to be it is up to us as individuals to prove that finally life is more valuable to us than a gun.

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

we need gun laws that work...this will keep happening...
and these are just innocent children...
It is horrific that we are having shootings almost every week.
This poem has to make us stop and think....
j.

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you J for your most empathetic and humanist response to this poem. Last week I was upset yet again at the shooting in Buffalo. Then mortified a couple of days later in the shooting in So Cal. Yesterday I wept at what happened. Just as I had at Newtown. Freedom should never come at the price of our children's lives. We need better regulations on weapons, for it is apparent we as a civilized society lack responsibility to self regulate when it comes to guns. To normalize the events of Yesterday is to fall into the same old pattern of indifference, which will eventually lead to our demise as a nation. And I say this as a responsible gun owner myself. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

[keith]

thinking is what has been done since forever
and where has it gotten us jacob?
laying more dead flowers on the graves of DEAD KIDS!
stop thinking and DO SOMETHING !

[Mauricio Montoya]

Wow
I love this write
I could go the pros and cons
But I'll leave it at that
Because it is what it is
Bit you've lay thought
Where I need to read again.
Thank you for sharing.

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

Thank you Mauricio, I simply wish to pose the questions we refuse to answer as a civilized society. Because at the heart of it the answer defines our civility and Ideas of what freedoms we truly believe in. Thank you my friend for sharing your thoughts on this poem.

[John the Baptist]

I understand your frustration, Carlos. Things have gotten so out of hand at this point that I am open to almost any solution. I am on board with things like universal background checks, red flag laws, etc., but I have some wariness about prohibitions. They might work, but they also might create an underground market, which might result in more AR-15's getting into the wrong hands.

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

I understand believe me I do. I own a gun. But above all else I'm a humanist. I would never use that weapon against another human being. As citizens we must weigh value on the scales of these said freedoms against the worth of children's lives. There are other countries in this world that allow firearms, and yet America distinguishes itself as the most violent in allowing military weaponry to be proliferated amongst its citizenry. Why? Animals are not wearing Kevlar vests. There are not good creatures that are armed to retaliate when one of their own are shot and killed for sport. An AR-15 will never stop an Abrams tank or an armed stealth fighter. The idea of anyone believing so borders on insanity. We must do something, for to do nothing reveals our beliefs to be flawed and disingenuous that we hold life sacred. The only thing America has proven our greatness at is killing each other. For our judicial system is failing us, as is our government that allows children in our schools to be murdered. Freedom of choice soon to be gone, Freedom in education also fading, but not the right to shoot each other. In what civilized world is that normal? All I know is that yesterday children went to school in the hopes to be educated. And today they are gone, and all we are willing to do is mourn? Again. This is not the kind of Freedom we should ever stand for. I put myself in their parents shoes and it breaks me. Have we even earned the right and responsibility to have a second amendment in this violent country? Freedom should never come at the price of our children's lives.

[keith]

there already is a market forguns in this country
it's called the streets
it's called ghost guns
it's called AMERIKA !