Since the Battle of Lexington until today in Afghanistan, 1, 171, 177 Americans have died in battle. Since 1968, 1,384, 171 Americans have died from firearms in this country (including suicide). This means 212,994 more Americans lost their lives to gun violence in 45 years than in all our wars. (Henry Porter gathered these statistics from the CDC).

Tough statistics to pack along to your favorite house of worship, mountain lake or desert hill. And yet, we’d do well to live with them. If they disturb enough of us enough, maybe we can consider how to make it different…

It seems the Sabbath ought to start with more calming news than this… This is not the road to Peace.