A phenomenal piece by Katie Mitchell reminded me of an experience I had last year after traveling abroad for six months, visiting eight countries, and unintentionally circumnavigating the globe. When I returned to the U.S., I felt a striking realization: I was now less safe due to the pervasive threat of gun violence.

While overseas, I spoke with several foreign families who’d lived in the U.S. and wouldn’t return because their children experienced active shooter drills at American schools, leaving them with lasting anxiety. One Australian family had lived in New York for three years. Their young son had participated in these drills. After moving back home, a simple school alarm—a response to a dog wandering onto the grounds—triggered a severe panic attack in him, thinking it was an active shooter. The boy endured PTSD for months from that single alarm.

Katie captures this issue so much more eloquently than I ever could. I can't fathom what it must be like for parents to send their children to school, uncertain if they’ll return. And I question how we, as a society, have become so complacent about something so profoundly tragic and avoidable.

Katie’s last line, which I’ll share for those who don’t have time to read the entire piece, should be etched into our hearts: “So often following a shooting tragedy, urgent action is replaced by empty words: ‘thoughts and prayers.’ But as we descend into November, remember that a vote is a kind of prayer.”