Dear members of the Marist community,

I am sickened, as I know you are, by the news that an 18-year-old gunman entered an elementary school yesterday in Uvalde, Texas and murdered 19 students and two adults.  It is impossible to comprehend this unspeakable act of savagery against innocent children finishing up the school year, or the pain of parents of those children and the family members of the educators who lost their lives.  As a college community, and as a nation, we mourn this tragic loss of life and the shattered families left behind.  We offer our deep condolences to these families and loved ones.

We also condemn the all-too-present forms of evil in our society that led this to occur.  Just four days ago in my commencement address to the Class of 2022, I called for everyone to come together in a collective commitment to humility to help solve the world’s many problems, including the abhorrent forms of senseless violence that occur, over and over.  While mass shootings occasionally occur in other nations, recurrent episodes of mass shootings in schools, places of worship, stores, and other places where people congregate in peace have largely been an American phenomenon.

I refuse to believe that we cannot be better as a nation, and I expect more from the leaders of this nation.  So long as nothing is done after unimaginable tragedies such as Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Charleston, Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, El Paso, and Buffalo, there will always be another episode of mass murder like Uvalde just around the corner.  Where is our national collective humility...our care and concern for others?  If not for other adults, then at least for our grade school children.  It seems little to ask that our leaders come together in common purpose to implement measures to reduce the risk that weapons of mass murder fall into the hands of those who wish to engage in mass murder.  It is time for excuses and false arguments to come to an end.  My office will be reaching out to our representatives to urge them to work with their colleagues on both sides of the aisle to finally make meaningful progress, in the hope that this time, unlike all the other times before it, will result in action.

Kevin C. Weinman
President
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
(845) 575-3600
President@marist.edu