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Perspective: Sick and tired of thoughts and prayers

Jason Leung
/
Unsplash

On December 20, 1964 while speaking about the oppression of the Jim Crow south, Civil Rights activist and humanitarian Fannie Lou Hamer said “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Like Hamer, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired of hearing “thoughts and prayers” after mass shootings in our country. It’s become a hollow cliché that becomes easier to say as we become more desensitized to these deplorable acts of evil.

As somebody who is open about their faith, I believe the phrase “thoughts and prayers” endorses inactivity. There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve. People of faith know faith without works is dead. Prayer and participation go hand-in-hand. From Downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, to an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, to McDonalds in Chicago, Illinois to a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma; prayers and thoughts aren’t reducing these horrific events.

If we are going to pray, we also need to act according to our prayers. As a nation, when will we all be sick and tired of being sick and tired? It’s time to end the political posturing, gaslighting, and mudslinging. It’s time to meet in the middle of the aisle and protect the people of this nation while observing the intent of the Second Amendment. Over the next two weeks nineteen kids from the same elementary school with be laid to rest. The children who survived will be scared for the rest of their lives. Enough with the tribalism, let’s focus on the dignity of humanity and what’s in the best interest of the people.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., George Joseph “Joe” Mitchell was raised in DeKalb, where he is the bi-vocational co-pastor of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.