As a mother sprinted barefoot toward her children’s church in Minneapolis, where a mass shooting had erupted, my own grandsons were locked down in their daycare. The photo shows her terror; my grandson's question the next day revealed mine. As I lay my grandson down for a nap, he looked up at me with wide, unknowing eyes and asked, “Will I be safe?” “If I were honest, I would have said: No, you might not be. Because you were born in a country that claims to value you before you are born—to win votes—but once you arrive in this world, that value disappears.” In America, children have become collateral. Collateral for political power. Collateral for religious agendas. Collateral for an industry that has persuaded us to treat weapons of war as sacred, even as we render our sons and daughters expendable. We allow them to be murdered in their classrooms, their churches, their neighborhoods—not because we lack the means to stop it, but because too many adults have chosen silence over c...