• Engage

    Five Things My Community Has Learned after a Mass Shooting

    Today I'm happy to have as my guest Destiny Teasley, who was my grad-school writing student at the time of the Las Vegas shootings. Please listen carefully….  On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting took place in the center of my city, Las Vegas, Nevada. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 850 suffered physical injuries. Two years have now passed. And here are five things my community has learned in that time: 1. Life goes on. And that is positive and negative. Encouraging and insulting. As a community we have become well-acquainted with the challenge of helping others to navigate the precarious tightrope between mourning and living. In this broken world…

  • Nan Maurer
    Engage

    What Happened in Eden Won’t Stay There

    Today I am happy to share this space with guest blogger, Nan Maurer.  The Oct.1, 2017 news about Las Vegas was bewildering. “Why would one man take so many lives in such a deliberate and brutal way?” Social media exploded with professional and amateur pundits playing debate games of blame and defend: It’s because of the NRA. It’s because of the mentally ill. It’s because of politicians. Sadly, unexplained tragedies happen all over the world. In July of 2011, a gunman killed 85 at a youth camp in Norway; in March 2015, a German co-pilot flew a passenger jet into the French Alps and killed 150. What happened in Vegas…