Vote Beyond Fear: Hallowe'en, All Saints Day and Sandy Hook Promise

As music set a quiet tone, first a dozen came in the door to hear Nicole Hockley at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.  Soon a few hundred filled the room. That was last Thursday night.

As we turned on our porch light, first a trickle of children came to our door, and then more and more children, dressed in scary costumes, but filled with laughter as we handed out little pumpkins and gourds. That was last Friday night, All Hallows' Eve.  

Saturday was All Saints Day followed by All Saints Sunday.  People entered church doors lighting candles and praying in remembrance of their beloved who had died this past year. 

On Tuesday all are invited outdoors to vote.

The days are connected in my mind.

 

Nicole Hockley was brought to Dubuque by the Dubuque Coalition for Nonviolence. Her talk:  “Creating a Safe Community: Working Together to End Gun Violence.” She is the mother of Dylan, one of the first grade children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, almost two years ago.

I was not afraid of the children who came to my door on Hallowe’en. And they were not afraid of my husband and me.

So, what are we afraid of? The fear factor is a real player in the November 4 election. Fatigue over scary negative ads makes people simply want the election to be over rather than vote at all. The over-whelming  fearful focus on Ebola in the United States distracts from the urgent necessity of concentrating efforts to stop the disease in West Africa. Terrorist beheadings make people fear the stranger of a different ethnicity or religion.

Grab a gun quick! “I’m afraid.”

The community members who came Thursday night heard the speaker from Sandy Hook Promise emphasize their work is about keeping children safe. Everyday dozens of mothers and fathers experience loss because gun violence is such a pervasive part of our culture: death on the streets, death through unsecured guns, death through domestic assault, death through suicide. These are in all races and social economic classes. Nicole gave the statistics of 289 shootings a day where 90 people die, seven of them children and teens. That’s over 100,000 acts of gun violence every year.

Trick or treat. The laughter of children in scary costumes is not scary at all. But gun violence is.

All Saints Day. When a child dies, well-meaning people of faith often say things like, “God wanted another little angel.” Nicole Hockley hesitantly confessed to the Dubuque community that her faith has been shaken, saying that hearing people say this is “God’s will” is not comforting. Rather, she said, “There are different ways to grieve.”  Friends, love and acceptance of each other’s grief with respect have been most helpful.

So, on this Voting Day, who will dare to go outside and vote in a culture of fear? And who will be so overcome with apathy or impotence that they just stay inside closed doors? Cultures of fear separate people. Divide people. We blame, scapegoat, and therefore excuse ourselves from any positive action.“But choosing to do nothing does not honor the dead nor protect the living. We need to work together for positive change,” said Nicole.

Gun violence is not even among prominent issues in polls for this November 4th election, although school shootings obviously have not stopped. Rather the culture of fear has widened: All those children coming across our borders from Central America, ISIS, Ebola. The images on morning news programs follow a pattern: “Breaking overnight” followed by the most eye-catching images that excite more than inform. They frightfully entertain if our role is merely spectator.

But if our role is to go outside together, to become really informed, to enter the dialog, to act, to become a part of movements to make a change, then we can make a difference.

All Saints Day: “No longer are we bound by the sting of death,” was the message I heard. “You are free.”

Voter suppression will work only if we let it. Saints will help their neighbors vote. No tricks.  And voting must lead to empowerment of people to have voice to move their legislators to actually act. And we dare not go back inside after Election Day is over, with our own personal bag of candy. I have my treats; forget about your needs.  There is so much we really can do together: caring about the children: victims of gun violence, those children who come across the border, the thousands of children with or orphaned by Ebola in West African nations, the millions of children who continue to live in poverty.

Anti-gun violence laws, immigration reform, international health, economic inequality, wise strategies for global peace call us outdoors to vote and to act.