Two Mothers of Homicide Victims

Today I was at two Holy Ground prayer vigils for two young men who had died within two hours of each other a few nights ago. The mother at the first vigil was beside herself in tears but wanted to go with us to the second vigil. The two families did not know each other but met today. The mothers embraced and formed an instant bond of sorrow for sons lost. Their sons were the 120 and 121st homicide victims according to the Mothers Against Gun Violence (MAGV) 2007 Memorial Page. My heart grieved at the site of the two mothers hugging and these words came to me:

Two gunshots, two hours apart, are fired in a cold winter’s night.
The two gunshots kill two young African-American men
And pierce the heart of two mothers.
The Two mothers hug and pray.
Too much gun violence invades Milwaukee and kills more than these two young men.
Too many guns,
Where did the politicians hide the Responsible Gun Bill
That was to close a loophole in the law allowing for too many guns?
Too much politics and the killing goes on.

You can read more about the Responsible Gun Bill that has gotten lost in politics, and about the year-end prayer vigil for all 2007 at the Mothers web page.

Today on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, it is only right that the seeds of death, all the handguns in Milwaukee, also reminded me of the seeds of life, adventures like the “DMZ” garden that Marna (co founder of MAGV), Dawn (the founder of “Foundations Dwellings,” homes for persons with disabilities), and I are planning for next year on a empty lot near Dawn’s house. I decided that for Christmas I would give to the DMZ garden co-op money to purchase seeds for planting next spring. Hopefully the children and young adults in the neighborhood around the DMZ garden will experience the joy and fruit that seeds of life bring, and avoid the death and sorrow the seeds of death — handguns — deliver. Both garden seeds of life and handguns, seeds of death, take human hands to plant or kill. The more seeds of life we plant, I believe, the less seeds of death, guns, there will be.

We must rise up and make seeds of life the common seeds in the city, not the seeds of death, like handguns. This winter, while we await the spring to plant, it is time to rise up again and demand that politicians stop playing politics with The Responsible Handgun Bill. Let’s make it easier to purchase seeds of life than seeds of death.

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