Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) borrows the words of Esau McCaulley to address the biggest question of our time — how do we judge the success or failure of a nation, our nation in particular, the richest nation — by many measures — in the history of the world?
For context, McCaulley is no radical Berkeley liberal, as the stereotype might have it. Instead, he is a theologian and a professor at the devoutly conservative Christian institution Wheaton College, which bears the motto “For Christ and His Kingdom.”
Writing for the New York Times, McCaulley posits the many ways a nation’s success or failure might be calculated — by its economy, its military, its system of education — before suggesting a simpler, far more heart-wrenching metric: “The number of weeping parents it allows, the small coffins it tolerates.”
Sen. Booker reads McCaulley’s words below.
How do we want to be measured? pic.twitter.com/FGbTNSoX2I
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 30, 2023
Booker has proposed various national gun safety measures, and on numerous occasions introduced the Federal Firearm Licensing Act, which would require a license for guns just as is required to drive a car.
“The ambitious legislation would require individuals to obtain a firearm license from the Department of Justice (DOJ) before purchasing or receiving a firearm,” Booker said in 2019.
At that time Booker also said: “We’re in the midst of a national gun violence crisis that is ravaging our country. The consequences of continued congressional inaction are deadly. There have been more mass shootings this year than number of days — we cannot continue to accept this shameful status quo.”
Booker could issue the same statement today, and would not have to edit his words.
Instead the Senator is trying a different approach, borrowing the words of the Christian theologian McCaulley and hoping the powerful image of tiny coffins has more resonance this time around.
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