excerpt from Pounding the Steering Wheel

Mamas in some other places are terrified their kids will fall down wells, be eaten by alligators, suffocate from air pollution, succumb to lead poisoning, drown in sewers, slip off the top of that monster train hurtling through Mexico.

And then, here in America, the radio reports a fifteen-year-old boy down in the middle of a park or a toddler on the way to the hospital after finding a gun inside a shoe box. We watch videos of small children exiting schools after shootings, looking vulnerable and scared, arms over their heads proving they aren’t carrying firearms.

Mamas here, and Mamas there, watch the news, or turn off the news, pound their steering wheels, or scream into their computers.