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I guess I wonder what we are waiting for.
Permission to be fed up?
Permission to act?
We watched, didn't we?
One after another, mass shootings took down innocent people -- CHILDREN -- at Sandy Hook, in Uvalde.
We listened, didn't we?
To the attempts to soothe.
To the attempts to convince us the victims were in the prayers of politicians who then failed to act.
We waited, didn't we?
For something, anything, that would stop the killing of innocent people.
We wondered, didn't we, how our elected officials could go through a single day without moving towards a solution to what is distinctly OUR PROBLEM.
We thought, didn't we?
We thought our leaders would make good on their promises.
We were patient, weren't we?
Even though we never should have had to be.
We wondered, didn't we?
In the media, on social media, over coffee, to anyone who would listen, we raved about the unjustness of having to wonder who will be the next group to suffer.
And now, we know.
In Highland Park, Illinois, not so far from us, and far too close to our hearts because these are the family of colleagues and friends, there is a child, a 2-year-old child, whose father's corpse shielded him in a shooting that happened on one of our most sacred holidays: Independence Day.
To the parties that claim to have their constituents in mind -- yes you, Republicans and Democrats -- get off your ineffective keisters and get back to work. You are getting paid by the rest of us to find solutions to critical national problems and, guess what? This is a critical national problem. If you aren't willing to find a route to a solution, get out of the way and let someone who will take your job.
We listened, didn't we?
We waited, didn't we?
We wondered, didn't we? And then, frankly, we wondered again and again.
We thought, didn't we?
We were patient, weren't we?
And now, we are grieving, aren't we?
Again and again, we grieved because all the listening, and waiting, and wondering, and thinking, and patience didn't do the trick, did it?
All those professed prayers and promises and soothing phrases meant to assuage each bitter moment did nothing.
And we watched, didn't we?
And we were powerless.
Why?
Because so many of our leaders are invested in creating lines in imaginary sand fighting settled battles, but ignoring the war that is killing us.
I say it again; either do your job or get out.
This is no time for posturing.
Our country demands a backbone.
Let each of us, even if we have to do it with our teeth, rip from the fabric of our country this chronic obsession with mass death.
Jane Curtis is interim editor of the Daily Freeman-Journal.