Photo Source: Flickr Creative Commons by Rupert Ganzer https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/loop_oh\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>I saw a sweet photo of the first day of school in one of our diocesan parishes this week.<\/p>\n
The kids were sitting, every other desk, wearing their masks, all neat and pretty in their uniforms while the parish priest stood talking to them in his mask. The comments under this photo were full of thumbs up and heart emojis and the verbiage was a chorus of awwwws.<\/p>\n
My first thought when I looked at this photo was \u201cI hope you guys don\u2019t kill any of those kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have any big illusions as to why Catholic schools are opening all over the country in the face of a pandemic. It\u2019s the tuition money and the economic realities of keeping the schools closed for a few more months that\u2019s driving this decision.<\/p>\n
That is a hard boogie. I have no doubt about that. I\u2019ve heard people excuse opening the schools with what amounts to sloganeering. \u201cKids have got to learn,\u201d they say. Well, yes. But they don\u2019t have to learn this afternoon. It won\u2019t cripple their education to wait a couple of months. It certainly won\u2019t cripple it to distance learn for a while.<\/p>\n
The bottom line here is that the first requirement for kids to learn is that they have to be alive.<\/p>\n
Most kids are resilient enough and lucky enough to skate through this virus. But some of them are not, and we can\u2019t pinpoint which is which. We know that certain pre-existing health problems make it more likely that if you get this virus, you will die. But a lot of people who don\u2019t fit inside those parameters end up desperately ill or dead from the virus, anyway.<\/p>\n
All we have to predict who will die and who will be symptom free are indicators and probabilities. That\u2019s the way life and death always work in the real world.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example.<\/p>\n
We now know that cancer cells pop up in everyone\u2019s body. Just about everyone gets cancer.<\/p>\n
But the vast majority of people who get cancer never know they had it. Their body knocks it out at that first cancer cell.<\/p>\n
But if you\u2019re one of the ones who hits the unlucky jackpot, cancer can still give you a really bad ride. It can make you horribly ill, and it can kill you. Cancer is not benign because most people never know they had it.<\/p>\n
Once again, we have indicators and probabilities, but we can\u2019t predict which cancer column you will fall into. So we tell everybody not to smoke, even though there are those like my mother who smoke for over 70 years and never have a problem.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the way it is with any disease, including COVID-19. The fact that the guy down the street had it and never knew it doesn\u2019t protect you at all. It could kill you. Or it could make you sicker than you\u2019ve ever been in your life. It leaves some people with what are probably permanent heart and lung damage. It\u2019s unpredictable.<\/p>\n
All we know for sure are the numbers. The numbers say that many of the people who are surviving do so after horrific illness. Despite massive medical intervention, literally hundreds of thousands of people have died from it in a few months. It\u2019s unpredictable, but it\u2019s a killer.<\/p>\n
The Catholic schools should not be open right now because the numbers say that, as a direct result of the school reopening, some of the kids in those schools will become horribly ill, and some few of them will die. The numbers say that some of the family members of these kids will also become horribly ill and some of them will die. All because the schools are open.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I saw a sweet photo of the first day of school in one of our diocesan parishes this week. The kids were sitting, every other desk, wearing their masks, all neat and pretty in their uniforms while the parish priest stood talking to them in his mask. The comments under this photo were full of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":27764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[750,8159,41,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-child-abuse","category-coronavirus","category-politics","category-pro-life"],"yoast_head":"\n
I Hope They Don't Kill Any of Those Kids.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I saw a sweet photo of the first day of school in one of our diocesan parishes this week. The kids were sitting, every other desk, wearing their masks,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Hope They Don't Kill Any of Those Kids.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I saw a sweet photo of the first day of school in one of our diocesan parishes this week. The kids were sitting, every other desk, wearing their masks,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-14T14:17:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-08T15:30:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/01\/school-buses.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/\",\"name\":\"I Hope They Don't Kill Any of Those Kids.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-14T14:17:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-08T15:30:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\"},\"description\":\"I saw a sweet photo of the first day of school in one of our diocesan parishes this week. The kids were sitting, every other desk, wearing their masks,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"I Hope They Don’t Kill Any of Those Kids.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Public Catholic\",\"description\":\"Catholic in the Public Square\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\"},\"description\":\"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I Hope They Don't Kill Any of Those Kids.","description":"I saw a sweet photo of the first day of school in one of our diocesan parishes this week. The kids were sitting, every other desk, wearing their masks,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I Hope They Don't Kill Any of Those Kids.","og_description":"I saw a sweet photo of the first day of school in one of our diocesan parishes this week. The kids were sitting, every other desk, wearing their masks,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/","og_site_name":"Public Catholic","article_published_time":"2020-08-14T14:17:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-11-08T15:30:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":427,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/01\/school-buses.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rebecca Hamilton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Hamilton","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/","name":"I Hope They Don't Kill Any of Those Kids.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-08-14T14:17:55+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-08T15:30:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d"},"description":"I saw a sweet photo of the first day of school in one of our diocesan parishes this week. The kids were sitting, every other desk, wearing their masks,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/08\/i-hope-they-dont-kill-any-of-those-kids\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"I Hope They Don’t Kill Any of Those Kids."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/","name":"Public Catholic","description":"Catholic in the Public Square","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d","name":"Rebecca Hamilton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Hamilton"},"description":"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37780"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43192,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37780\/revisions\/43192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/01\/school-buses.jpg\")
<\/a>