Jean Abercrombie
St. Joseph
I have written To The Editor regarding gun violence many times in Texas where I used to live and teach school as well as here in St. Joseph where I moved six years ago upon retiring.
This time, as I was beginning to jot down notes for another plea for action, I decided to try something different. As Percy Bysshe Shelley noted in “A Defense of Poetry” in 1821, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Unable to spur action from our legislators in our government, I wonder if Shelley might be right and relevant for us here in America in 2022.
We held our annual Orange For Gun Safety event here in St. Joseph sponsored by Moms Demand Action shortly after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. I have attached a copy of a poem I read at the gathering here at the St. Joseph Parish. It was written, at my request, for me to read at our rally by a friend and former colleague, Herschel Moore, of Houston, Texas. Moore has given me permission to share it with you. The poem was well-received and many asked for copies.
MASSACRES of THE INNOCENTS
By Herschel Moore
Who’s fault is it?
The slaughter of the innocents?
The king of Egypt ordered it
In order to be sure his tribe
Would not be replaced
By the tribe of slaves.
(But, of course, he didn’t
Drown a single baby
Himself.)
And King Herod ordered it
To make sure he would not be replaced
On the throne
By the baby born in Bethlehem.
(But, of course, he didn’t
Run a single child through
With his own sword.)
How wary were these kings of their place!
We wonder: Are our senators
So protective of their seats?
These kings, with their voices,
Commanded slaughter.
Senators by their silence
Abet the bloodshed.
(But, of course, they don’t
Pull the trigger themselves.)
By commanding the murder of little children,
These bloody kings
Hoped to preserve their place.
By doing nothing in the face of assault,
After assault, after assault, after assault…,
Our senators
Hope… what?
To retain their funding from gun sellers?
To ingratiate themselves to their constituents?
To preserve their seat in the senate?
Where they do nothing?
As our children are murdered?
Who is to blame?
A better question: What can be done?
Surely, we know.
