A Message from Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore on the Las Vegas Shooting
Dear Beloved Community,
This battering with bullets HAS to STOP! We come together yet again to mourn the horrific tragedy in Las Vegas, Nevada, which has already claimed more than 50 lives, with hundreds of others injured, some critically. I join with the whole BU School of Theology community to share our overwhelming grief and concern for the people who have been killed and injured and for all of their loved ones. We want the people closest to this tragedy to know that your grief is our grief. Your devastation is ours, though we know we cannot fully know the depths of your sadness and your raging range of emotion. Our hearts are broken, and we pray and cry and act for you in this tragic time.
The sounds of tragedy are a barrage of bullets, screams and tears, running footsteps, breaking into a night of open-air music, intended for enjoyment. The sounds of tragedy are the tears and wailing in hospitals and in homes as families and friends try to find their loved ones, and as some of those loved ones receive the worst possible news. The sounds of tragedy are the internal groans of all the people who will not and cannot forget this night of horror. We cry with you and we cry for all of the tragic actions, policies, damaged individuals, and damaged society that led to this moment.
The sounds of tragedy are also sounds of sickness in our society. The public will learn more about the presumed shooter later and about whatever sickness led to his horrible acts of violence. What we know NOW is that our society is sick. We have allowed a gun culture to flourish under the guise of the second amendment, which is a thin veneer to hide our willingness to tolerate escalating violence and death. We feed this acceptance of death with inadequate gun laws and with a culture that accepts killing as routine and unstoppable. The United States was founded on principles of freedom – freedom to live and not freedom to kill. The isolation of the freedom to bear arms from the freedom to live is a tragedy. We as a society can do better. May the sounds of tragedy and the sounds of sickness awaken us finally to pray and work for radical change in ourselves and in our society.
With prayers of sadness for all of you who lost your lives in Las Vegas,
And for all of you who are still struggling with injuries and loss,
With prayers of gratitude for all of you who risked your lives to save others,
With prayers of hope that we can respond to the depths of your grief,
And to the depths of tragic loss and sickness in our society.
— Mary Elizabeth Moore