By Kayli Harley, TIWP Student

Think and pray all that you want, but your inaction amounts to nothing. Thoughts and prayers are worthless staring down the barrel of a gun. They are useless to the children who do not yet understand the politics of their lives yet face the repercussions for this country’s apathy anyway. They do nothing for a dead body with a bullet in its chest. Thoughts and prayers didn’t save them, and they won’t save anyone else. The families that must now live with a void in their lives where a person should be will not remember your two-second prayers and thoughts. They will remember how you got on your knees when they needed you to stand up.

If you truly cared about these lost lives and the ones that will inevitably come if we do nothing, you’d ensure that you never have to send another thought or prayer on this issue ever again. If you’re content to think and pray for every victim of gun violence in the past and in the future, then get to it; I hope the gravity of this loss hits you when you try to rise back up.

At some point this country will wake up and realize it’s running red only to find that thoughts and prayers can’t wash away blood.

But, by all means, let me know when you finally crack the code on getting inaction to mean something.