I thought long and hard as to what songs I should compile for this weekend’s playlist. In light of what’s happened in Florida, I felt it was best to put together the playlist I have surrounding grief.

I admit that prior to this tragedy, the issue felt like a distant threat. It’s the price you pay for living in the boonies if you’re not careful. Living away from the masses makes it easier to detach emotionally. At least for me.

But then not long ago our school district locked some of our schools down. They notified us they were doing this, but gave no further information. Nothing was explained afterwards when the all clear was given. Days later I saw on Facebook that a gun man had been outside the high school. Tuxedo Cat’s school. Even then, we heard and read nothing about it in the news. It was unsettling and unnerving.

So now this happens in Florida. Children died. Whatever it was that went down at our schools that day could have easily been something like this. I don’t want it to be like this.

We need to keep raising our voice and speak out about this. Children’s lives should never be a partisan issue. It’s a community issue. And it doesn’t matter if it happened in my town, or your town, or someone else’s town. We can’t let this continue.

I don’t have an answer to make it stop beyond common sense laws, but what I want to see and what I need to see is Congress to meet in the middle somewhere and make changes.

Without our children, we don’t have a nation. We don’t have a future.

Let us rally. Let us be a tide and move Congress. Let us move our neighbors. It begins with us. Take the first step. Make the change.