Let's Pretend

So let’s pretend for a few minutes. Pretend it’s Thursday. You rise as you always do and get ready for your day of work. You leave just as you always do, but today you seem to be particularly aware of just how many high school students leave the same time you do. You also notice that they all drive the same car - a Ford Mustang. You leave your neighborhood and start down the county two-lane road on your way to wherever. You switch on the radio.

Suddenly, a Mustang carrying two students passes you on your left and, as they do, the front wheels fall off and the car skids out of control, smashing into a utility pole. You immediately stop and rush back to the car only to find both students dead. You reach for your phone to call 911.

But 911 doesn’t answer. Because they are busy on other calls. It seems that at the same exact moment, 9 other Mustangs suddenly lost their front wheels and crashed, killing nearly 16 more people. Later that night, as you watch the evening news, you see the full impact of the carnage on the highway that morning. 18 young people - all students at your local high school - all killed in tragic car accidents. Involving the same car. Involving the same part failure.

You know the story doesn’t end here. Because there’s going to be an investigation into this apparent design flaw in the Ford Mustang. 10 cars don’t suddenly lose their front wheels, all at the same time. There MUST be a problem here. The NTSB declares that the issue is under investigation. People are cautioned.

And 10 weeks go by. And then, suddenly, in a town hundreds of miles from yours, on another beautiful Thursday, 10 more Mustangs lose their front wheels. And 15 more students - all from the same school - are killed.

You’re probably thinking the same thing I am - by now there would have been some sort of congressional action and the Ford Mustang would have been ordered off the road. In all likelihood, the chairman of Ford Motor Company would have either stepped down or been fired. Sales of Ford cars would plummet. And everyone would say “good riddance” to the damned death traps that were killing our students by the dozen every few weeks.

We just played “Let’s Pretend.” At least the car portion was pretend. The reality is that our students ARE being killed by the dozens every few weeks. By gun violence at school. Over and over we see the news. And over and over, our politicians offer there “thoughts and prayers.”

It’s time for more. Much more. You know I’m right - if the Ford Mustang was killing students in droves, there would be congressional action to eliminate the car and fix the problem. So here’s a novel idea - pretend guns are the aforementioned Mustang. And get off your ass and do something.