The first day of school is still one of my favorite days of the year. My oldest daughter teaches kindergarten at a Catholic school in the Twin Cities and every year I get a call from her at the end of the day telling me how great her day was, how much she loves her job and how her new class of five-year-olds is the cutest yet. The joy and excitement in her voice comes right through the phone.
Naturally I immediately thought of her and her students when I heard about the tragic shooting of young students at a similar Catholic school in Minneapolis by a gender-confused individual. I also thought about (and prayed for) the parents of the students who were killed. According to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, my prayers were a waste of time.
Frey’s reaction to yet another violent shooting in his city was an awkward attempt to score political points by mocking the “thoughts and prayers” narrative:
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.”
As a political communications staffer for most of my career, I’ve been in the room many times helping political leaders formulate a message in response to a crisis (including school shootings). Because of that experience, I usually give leaders the benefit of the doubt when they say things that don’t make perfect sense in the heat of the moment. But I can’t give Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey that benefit, no matter how many times I read what he said.
Frey is saying that thoughts and prayers aren’t enough or don’t work because these kids were praying when they got shot. It’s like saying seatbelts don’t work after someone dies in a car crash wearing a seatbelt.
Is it too much to ask for Democratic political leaders in Minnesota to approach an issue as serious as a school shooting without making crass political points? Frey is pandering to an audience of potential Minneapolis voters who he believes want him to advocate for gun control in this situation. In his mind, that’s the appropriate narrative after a shooting. Conservatives offer prayers for the victims, so liberals must choose the other side. Frey took it one step further and, in the process, denigrated everyone who genuinely turns to prayer in these tragic situations. It was ghoulish.
He also said we have to do something, but what does he propose?
The only way this killing could have been stopped was someone in the killer’s life having the strength to tell him the truth, with love: “You are not a woman and I’m sorry you think you are. Let’s talk about why you feel that way. I love you and I want to help you figure this out, but I will not pretend you are a woman.”
Mayor Frey, Governor Tim Walz and the Democrats in the Minnesota Legislature told him the opposite. They put into law “gender affirming” policies that force everyone to lie and tell him it’s ok how he feels and anyone who disagrees is a hater. They twist themselves in knots trying to use the right pronouns, change the meaning of words (pregnant people?) and convince themselves nothing bad will happen if men use the girls’ restroom. Their misplaced empathy for people struggling with mental illness is ruining our state. It has to stop.
As my colleague David Zimmer wrote yesterday:
At the risk of using sarcasm, where could transgender individuals have learned that violence is justified? Look no further than Minnesota’s Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan and the wildly inappropriate photo of her wearing a t-shirt stating “Protect Trans Kids” with a large knife emblazoned within the phrase — a photo and message which she has refused to denounce.
Minnesotans should consider this photo as Flanagan asks them for a promotion to the U.S. Senate next year.
Mayor Frey went on to defensively lecture commentators like me who might point out what was going on in the mind of the shooter:
“Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity.”
Common humanity would not vilify Minnesotans (and victims of a school shooting) for praying.
Maybe a tragic shooting of Catholic school kids celebrating mass by a gender confused man will wake up average Minnesotans and put our state back on the path to sanity.
At my daughter’s school, the principal spoke to the staff and declared they will not live in fear. They had their first all-school mass of the year today with the help of some very visible local police officers. No doubt her kindergartners used their time in mass to offer thoughts and prayers for their fellow students across the river.
