November 8,  2018,

On October 27th, 2018, a man with a gun entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed eleven people as they worshipped. He had an AK47 or similar gun and said he wanted to kill all the Jews.

On this past Sunday, November 4th, just over a week after the Pittsburgh shooting, I entered my Unitarian Universalist church, with its banner outside that states that “Love Is Love, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change is Real…” I took a moment to study the exits. I took a seat closer to one of the side exits and sat down, not where I usually sit. But it was closer to a side exit.

After a bit, I noticed that a friend of mine, not a member of the church, was seated just off the main aisle, and so I moved to sit next to her. It was no longer an easy exit from my seat.

Last night, a young man with a gun entered a bar and dance arena in Thousand Oaks, California and killed twelve people before shooting himself. Many were college students who were out for a fun night of line dancing. I doubt that they looked at exits when they entered.

What does it mean for us in the USA when we have to look for easy exits when we enter a bar or a school or a movie theatre or a shopping mall or our house of worship?