To Robb Elementary the mothers came When they arrived they waited not with bated breath but cried out unfettered the way they did when they labored and pushed with all their might through pain, fear resistance, exhaustion willing their infants into the world into the hands of doctors and nurses midwives and doulas then finally into their very own arms To Robb Elementary the fathers came When they arrived they waited not with quiet dignity but shouted with the urgency of men whose homes were being raided they issued to the warriors on call a call to arms— to protect and serve secure and defend with Justice. Integrity. Service. to embody Fidelis ad mortem Faithfulness unto death to fulfill the promise We will when others won’t But the warriors on call it turns out could not be recruited not by such rabble to join the battle against the lone raider locked in a room with the rabble’s children who also called and called and called them to arms from deep inside Room 1-1-2 the long arm of the law shackled by its chain of command fell short on imagination and fell back on its orders to stand back maintain a perimeter preserve order subdue the rabble for the rabble’s own good even as their homes were raided even as their loved ones bled in the days that ensued we the people tried to create the legend we needed a real-life Dirty Harry who charged ahead did what had to be done danger and orders be damned but the fact checkers got us robbed us of that leaving us with the sordid truth that there was no Dakota Meyer or Daniel Hellings or David Teich or even Desmond Doss that day
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I can’t get over how they stood by while 10-year-olds perished. Angeli Gomez is the legend. The “rabble” who answered the call. May her tribe increase.