Hey Hey, NRA, How many kids did you kill today?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

Plus 9 grown-ups. Teachers, mostly.

These numbers red for the bloodshed of today.
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I don't yet have the names of those children or their teachers yet. But we do know who is responsible for corrupting our political system so that it tolerates the killing of children: the NRA.

One thing that needs to happen now: Determined gatherings at the NRA HQ in Fairfax, Virginia, just across the Potomac from Washington DC

Gatherings utterly committed to nonviolence, which the NRA is not --

Sitting down, sitting in, chanting the names of those 18 children over and over again, interspersed with the chant above (resurrected from the nonviolent campaign  against the Vietnam War, which pointlessly killed 50,000 Americans and a million Vietnamese)

Risking arrest -- DEMANDING that the NRA publicly and clearly abandon and reverse its opposition to a Federal comprehensive gun-control law.

And WARNING every member of Congress that any one of them who accepts any campaign contributions or lobbyist perks from the NRA will be confronted with serious cash donations to his or her opponent.

The NRA has corrupted American culture. It must return to the service of real hunters, or get out of business.

May the light we light in the dark time of the year light our path to begin sweeping violence out of our homes, our schools, our country.

"Not by might, and not by violence, but by My Spirit, My Breath, My Wind, My Hurricane of social change, says YHWH, YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh, the Breathing-Spirit of all life."  (The quotation is from the Prophetic passage from Zechariah 4:6, read this very Shabbat, in the midst of the Festival of Light in the time of Dark.)

Please share this letter with your friends, congregants, co-workers.

With blessings that we make REAL shalom, salaam, pax, paz, peace! --  Arthur