NEW PIECE: 

From Celebration to Nightmare to Now What?

a statement written by Pastor Dennis Solis (February 15, 2024)

Like everyone else I am still in a bit of a fog. What just happened to us? One moment our city was celebrating, and the next moment I saw people on my TV running for their lives in front of Union Station. I had just gotten off the phone with the Funaro’s who had left the celebration 20 minutes earlier. The Solis family left a little after they did. Now the sweet joy of victory, the shared experience of celebration and the beautiful weather were wiped out in an instant and that all too familiar, surreal scene was being played out in real time on our screens!

By now we have all heard the sad facts of what happened at the KC Chiefs Celebration parade. Someone opened fire in the crowd and as a result, one person has died (local DJ – Lisa Lopez Galvon) and 21 were injured with 9 to 11 of them being children or minors. We should also recognize that thousands were traumatized at the event and our whole city is still in shock.

I heard one man interviewed say, “Well it’s just the way it is. We can’t live in fear.” Is this what we’ve come to? “It’s just the way it is?” The new normal being, “go to an event and go with the odds, you will more than likely survive!?” Will we literally have to be attending a loved ones’ memorial service before we see that our society must do something different to address the sickness of mass shootings and the record number of shootings that take place in many of our cities? KC homicides surged in 2023.

It’s not enough to call the perpetrators “evil” and ask everyone to pray! As a Christ-follower I believe in the power of prayer, but I also believe love demands that we protect each other because we know the value of every human being made in the image of God. In our society some may disagree with our faith and worldview, but we can all agree that life is a gift and must be nurtured, not destroyed by an assault weapon of any kind.

I know we as a nation disagree about the solutions. But we are like the lobster in the boiling pot, slowly being boiled alive and accepting it as normal. It’s not. Why can’t we look at each other and say, “I know there is validity to what you say, yes, mental health is an issue let’s address it” and “yes, you are right, there are too many guns in our society, let’s address it.” So, let’s stop standing around, let’s stop going to premature funerals, let’s stop contributing to one another’s death because we refuse to make the changes that can truly make our streets and public gatherings safe for everybody.

We are so thankful that our family wasn’t there when the shooting started. But we grieve with all those whose lives will forever be impacted by another tragic reality we have been forced to accept.

Christ-follower, pray, absolutely, pray that we will, with God’s help, DO what will protect our children and neighbors’ children, our loved ones and our neighbors’ loved ones. If a local or federal representative won’t act beyond political partisanship, if they don’t have the courage to do some of the things that will move the needle, vote them out! Find out where they stand, make gun violence a top issue, look for people in leadership that are serious and sane when it comes to solutions. There is too much “Us” and “Them” going on! It’s time for us to say, “We need to fix this.” Or there will be no one left to attend the funeral.

As dire as this sounds, I also bring a word of great hope. We have entered the Easter season. Soon we will gather for a magnificent Celebration because Christ has Risen! But before we do, there is a season of introspection, repentance, and a deep reaching out to our God of grace (Ash Wednesday was yesterday) let us bring this nation to the Lord, let us bring our hearts to the Lord asking him to forgive any apathy or hopelessness we may carry in us when it comes to the violence in Kansas City and the nation. When the fog clears, let us be counted among those who will do what we can to make KC a better and safer place for ALL OF US.