In praise, worship, sadness, and happiness we pray. When we pray, we invest ourselves in the betterment of ourselves and the world around us by asking our Creator for blessings we know we don’t deserve. Prayer is a conversation, not simply a list of petitions.
Progressive Leftists have preyed on prayer for decades and in the aftermath of the school shooting in Minneapolis, they once again choose to denigrate prayer as a useless refuge for the feeble-minded.
The Democrat Party is the party of the negative, they are for nothing and against everything. If Trump seeks to reduce crime and violence they stand against order and peace. If sparing girls the ignominy of crushing defeat at the hands of a boy means keeping men out of women’s sports, they are against that. If exposing government waste and fraud means cutting the mother’s milk of money off at the teat, they are against that.
Now they are even against prayer.
After the shooting, former Biden White House Spokesliar Jen Psaki tweeted, “Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers do not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey emphasized what he believes is the futility of prayer saying, “and don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”
Finally, Maxwell Frost (D-Fla) had this to say on X, “These children were probably praying when they were shot to death at catholic school,” and “Don’t give us your f###ing thoughts and prayers.”
After the shooting Democrats across the country re-ignited the gun control debate. For them there is no debate, they simply want your guns and aren’t above using tragedy as a prop for their continual assault on our 2nd Amendment rights.
Even former Republican House Rep. Trey Gowdy seemed apoplectic, but unfortunately not at a loss of words. “And so, we’re going to have to have a conversation of freedom versus protecting children. I mean how many school shootings does it take before we’re going to have a conversation about keeping firearms out. It’s always a young, white male. Almost always.”
Gowdy’s exasperation is shared by most of Americans. We watch in horror and wonder what can be done to stop the violence. Further restricting gun rights isn’t the answer.
When we feel helpless and overwhelmed, we can pray. Pray for guidance and wisdom. Pray for the children and their protection. Pray for the transformation of hate into love and for mental illness to become mental health.
These children died at the hands of a man who wanted to be a woman. Robert Westman was mentally ill, as is anybody who thinks they are something they are not. A person who thinks they are a horse, or a car, or a tree is deluded. So too, there are boys and girls who think they’re girls and boys.
The tragedy at Annunciation Catholic School can’t be undone. No gun control law will stop the evil that lurks in the heart of mankind. That darkness can’t be legislated away.
We can be better, and one way is through prayer. While praying, we separate ourselves from those chained to the here and now by connecting with something greater and more profound. Prayer is never about the past, but instead always the future.
It will come as a surprise to many that those of us that pray do so not as a shield against death, but rather as protection for our soul beyond life. All those who see it as an empty gesture have only this world and its problems on which to rely. They can’t be better than the world they’ve created, so they don’t try.
When they need to fix a problem, they respond by denying freedom and limiting liberty. To them your very freedom of thought, speech, and expression is the issue. If you don’t think like they do, or if you don’t agree with them, the solution is to restrict your freedom.
Be it COVID lockdowns, restrictions on subjective “misinformation”, cancelation by Woke culture, or the restriction of your gun rights, these folks don’t pray for success, they prey on your rights.
We can have a national conversation on how to make our schools and society safer. It should not include any infringement of our constitutional rights.
As both a former police officer and School Board Director I believe the safety of our children can be enhanced by common sense policies that improve the physical and passive security systems in our schools. Guns in the hands of trained good guys is still the greatest deterrent to those seeking to harm and kill.
Until we do, at least we can pray. No matter what anyone thinks.
Stephen Piccirillo © 2025
