On Monday, my friend was murdered in the #CovenantSchool shooting, along with a janitor, 3 children, & a substitute teacher. I was frustrated with Bill Lee’s response, & I said as much.
Let’s review what has happened in the week since. A thread. 1/
@steveharuch reached out, & I told @ThisIsNashville about my friend #KatherineKoonce & how I hoped #Nashville & Tennessee would be led through this darkest of times by @GovBillLee & @MarshaBlackburn, who were in community w/ Katherine & me at #Covenant’s sister school. 2/
5 hours after I told @ThisIsNashville I was stunned by Bill Lee’s lack of repsponse, the Governor posted what I think must have been the most difficult video of his life. He appeared to be remembering @BillHaslam’s advice about a governor being a pastor to the people. 3/
On Wednesday, a vigil was held in downtown Nashville. @GovBillLee didn’t attend, though @MarshaBlackburn did. Neither had a press conference, & Bill hadn’t said anything else or even done a press conference to unite the state in prayer & continue to shape the response. 4/
@GovBillLee let his one video statement fade away w/ no further visible leadership to comfort our #BelovedCommunity, memorialize them, provide public info about resources, or direct how people who wished to support us could take action. 5/
It was as if @GovBillLee thought not talking about the horror in his faith community would make us disappear.
Into his leadership vacuum stepped Daily Wire influencers Bill moved to Nashville, laser-focused on making us forget Katherine, Cynthia, Will, Evelyn, Mike, & Hallie. 6/
On Thursday, students from #Nashville public schools, Christian schools, & churches flooded TN Capitol, singing “This Little Light of Mine” & demanding justice. @CSexton25 wasted no time calling them insurrectionists worse than J6. He never even said our friends’ names. 7/
On Friday, tornadoes tore thru TN & @GovBillLee’s social media was suddenly bristling w/ energy as he encouraged Tennesseans to seek shelter & visited people who had lost everything, present in person for their darkest moment.
A love he denied his own faith community. 8/
On Saturday, the faith community @GovBillLee & @MarshaBlackburn share had their first funerals for the lives lost at #CovenantSchool. Bill had dozens of photos amid tornado damage. Marsha was visiting a festival celebrating mules. 9/
On Sunday, my husband Shane ran tech at #Covenant church’s first service since the horror & spoke with #CovenantSchool’s chaplain @matthewsully, who led a chapel-style devotion in a funeral for one of his students. Bill made his 7th tornado post. Marsha posted a Bible verse. 10/
While @matthewsully led his chapel for a murdered child’s funeral, a @TPUSA personality accused Matthew for “mak[ing] folks feel unwelcome.” Neither the personality nor TPUSA uttered our friends’ names. 11/
It’s Monday again. In a few hours, a week will have passed since I frantically texted my Shane “Where are you I need to know right now that you’re safe.”
Katherine served our community & died saving kids’ lives. I don’t know why @MarshaBlackburn & @GovBillLee have forsaken us./f
ps-I have to rest now for a spell. I haven’t really slept in a week, & I’ve felt as though I was keeping vigil, reminding the world of my friend’s sacred worth when the most powerful people in our shared immediate circle, our covenant community, abandoned us. My heart is broken.
“Blessed is the one…whose delight is in the law of the Lord…that person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”
#KatherineKoonce
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