Killing Kids

I know not all my friends will like my saying this, but the evidence seems pretty clear that American munitions killed 168 schoolgirls and their 14 teachers in a strike in Minab, Iran, February 28, 2026. Donald Trump admits to hitting the neighbouring naval base, but maintains that destroying the school was Iran’s own work, notwithstanding the fact it was effected by a Tomahawk missile, none of which Iran has ever possessed. If you were a jury, I’d rest my case at this point.

But in thinking about the immorality of all this, we need to ask: “Is killing kids something new for America?”

Sadly, not. Just not all in one school. Funded and cheered on by gun interests, American governments have stood limply on the sidelines, wringing their hands and offering up “thoughts and prayers” while roughly 493 students and teachers have been gunned down since Columbine, April 20, 1999.

Without getting too deeply into the weeds about the actual meaning of “the right to bear arms” in the US Constitution, it’s hard to believe that the Founders had any inkling that their desire to ensure citizens were not disarmed by a tyrant might result in kids taking assault rifles and handguns to school and blowing away their classmates. Jefferson and Madison would be horrified to walk through a bloodied classroom and hear it suggested that they had provided cover for the slaughter. It was not their intention to banalize weapons of war.

We’re warned in Scriptures (ours and most others) that our consciences can be insulted often enough that we become uncaring and unconcerned about others, shrugging our shoulders at horrendous crimes even against children.

The words of Pastor Martin Niemöller should never be far from our minds in these days:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.*

If we can’t speak up for the children, who will be left to speak for us?

*Pastor Martin Niemöller, c. 1946