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Stearns Bank Pediatric/Welch Frontier Real Estate
Home Opinion Letter to the Editor

Massacres of the Innocents

Erin McIndoo by Erin McIndoo
August 5, 2022
in Letter to the Editor, Opinion, Print Editions, Print Sartell - St. Stephen, Print St. Joseph
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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. 

 

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Erin McIndoo

Erin McIndoo

Erin McIndoo graduated from Upper Iowa University with a degree in Communication Studies and English. During her time in school she wrote many stories for the university newspaper and also worked in the campus writing center. When she isn’t reading and writing, her go to activities are enjoying the outdoors, painting or trying out new plant-based recipes.

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