Yesterday I stumbled on @streetview.portraits, an agoraphobic photographer’s photos of her world travels: screenshots via Google street view. The moments she captures are impeccable, full of love & grace for the landscapes, people & animals she encounters. I was inspired to do some traveling of my own: to Uvalde. I started at Robb Elementary, where the phrase “Together We Rise” is emblazoned on the front wall. I wandered down the surrounding streets looking for the people who live there. Would I find children, running, playing in yards? Parents making their way to work or the store? Cops on patrol? Google scrubs most everything these days: license plates, signs & faces. In most cities you’ll find people. But in all of Uvalde, I only found one rooster, one dog, a pair of sneakers hanging from power lines, a smudge of a boy on a bike & one man who vanished completely when I got too close. It felt eerie but right on in the wake of the recent shooting: palpable absence, a whole town ghosted. People have said it takes a “monster” to shoot children like that. Yesterday the NRA & GOP blamed “evil.” But binary is an illusion; it is the fallacy of the “other.” Until we realize that there is only good, and the absence of love, grace & support of that good, there will be no healing. To those who say, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people”: you’re right. What are we doing to ensure that people — not evil monsters, but actual human people (98% male, often teenagers) — don’t act out in misogyny or illness or uncontrollable anger and kill people en masse? How are we fostering communities of care that ensure people don’t get to that point in the first place? Gun control might be the last bullet point (pun intended) on our to-heal list, after all the community building & healthcare that needs to come before it. But if someone has doused themselves in gasoline in a crowded room, shouldn’t we do everything in our power to keep flamethrowers out of their hands?