The Unturnable Page

This is my light, my dark, my days, my nights, my loneliness, my tears, and my God—my life in words. William Cory Stanley

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School Shootings

My daughter is a teacher, and my son is a sophomore in high school. So, school shootings weigh heavy on my spirit. I helped my oldest set up her classroom this year, paying close attention to the floor mounted door locking mechanism designed specifically for active shooters. It's quite humbling. And I hear the rhetoric. One side screaming for gun control while the other is preaching about the evils of mental instability. BUT why can't we address both? Please, for the love of God, let us do more than something. For the sake of our children, we must do everything. Try anything. I'm a gun owner, and I've heard all the arguments, but I haven't lost a child. And I don't want to lose a child—mine, yours, or anyone's. If I could save one, just one of our little ones, you wouldn't have to take my guns. I'd give them to you.

William Cory Stanley

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With my wife working in school administration and my daughter about to graduate with a degree in music education, we have lots of conversations in our house about public school trends and the funds that affect their policies. It worries me to hear whispers of cutting band and choir. Music transcends. It speaks to the soul. Surely our world doesn't need less of anything soul-level, and I can't imagine what the next generation of kids will look like if we take their song.

WCS

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I lost a friend this week. Sadly, over the last few months, he just drifted away. No, it wasn't cancer or some other disease that took him, more of a stomach bile, an acidity that just ate away at his gut. And I don't think he even noticed how much it consumed his life, but I could see the pain of it spewing all over his social media. I knew it wouldn't be long before he was gone, so I reached out on his birthday. Then, suddenly, after some political banter, it finally got the best of him. Hate always does. And in some ways, at times, I've been dangerously close to joining this pandemic of political unfriending. But where will we be in four years if we just block or unfriend every person who doesn't share our views? Maybe, just maybe, that's how we got here. We've forgotten how to make room for each other.

William Cory Stanley

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