This
was the question I was greeted with when I woke my 7-year-old
daughter this morning.
“What
makes you say that?” I asked, trying to disguise my irritation at whatever or whoever placed that idea in her head. I
fully expected her to tell me that she heard it on TV, and that the
perpetrator would be Mike Huckabee or Pat Robertson, or perhaps
someone from the Westboro Baptist Church claiming it was God's
retribution on the people of Connecticut for allowing gay marriage.
“Obama
said so,” was her answer.
What?
“Honey,
I'm pretty sure that whatever he said, he didn't mean that God wanted
them to die.” I decided that this may be a good learning moment,
and that we could research online exactly what Obama said and figure out
what he meant.
When
we found details from the speech he gave at the Newtown prayer vigil, I
was speechless. After reading the names of the murdered children, Obama clearly stated:
“God
has called them all home.”
Really?
The horrifying slaughter of 20 young children by a disturbed
individual is the will of God?
I
struggled for words... suppressed my nausea (and an urge to unleash a string of expletives)... and searched for an explanation that would not cause
further fear and confusion.
I'm
still searching.
Thank
you President Obama. Thank you for perpetuating and reinforcing the
same pathological ideas espoused by those who blame disasters on
“fags” and long for a theocracy.
And
thank you, sincerely, for providing me with another learning
opportunity - as soon as I figure out the best way to explain to a
7-year-old that our President is a self-serving panderer, and that
she doesn't need to live in fear that God may “call her home” the
next time she goes to school.
