What Would Anne Do?




Anne who? Anne Frank.  I don't have to wonder how she would respond to being quarantined, no imprisoned, in a tiny space, not for 30 or even 60 days but two years, while World War II swept her country.  I know what Anne Frank did.  The 14-year old Jewish girl chronicled her plight in The Diary of Anne Frank. 

 While we shelter-in-place, I recommend reading her frank (excuse the pun) insights into the plight two families faced. It's eye-opening and hair-raising. A former schoolteacher, I've read and taught the book many times, and each time  I marvel at the cruelty people inflict on each other.  And for the flimsiest of reasons.  

 Yes!  Superficial, insubstantial, and indefensible, war offers nothing to justify the carnage, destruction, and lasting depravity it spawns.  Period.  I used to despair over gun violence, especially when directed within marginalized groups and school shootings.  I still despair, but now I've learned that many young people resort to guns because Fisticuffs represent a dying, really dead and buried, Art.

 Joe Louis,  George Foreman, Muhammad Ali. where are you? Boys Clubs, Police Athletic Leagues (PAL), what happened to you? Venerable models and institutions surround us. We must reject outright the "get-a-gun-and-shoot" response that overrides the sanctity of life, diplomacy, and good sense. Access to guns obliterates thoughtful alternatives.

 Kids don't know how to use fists and ingenuity to avoid altercations.  And weapons are too available.  Yet, I wouldn't presume to step into the morass of school shootings, nor their genesis.  That's above my pay grade. 

 Really, this blog is only obliquely about the insanity of gun violence.  It's about love and its nuclear potency. It begs us to love one another.

 Read The Diary of Anne Frank, or not. Or soak your spirit in "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8). And reap the rewards.

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