One year after a gunman killed two students and injured 30 others at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, Gov. Tim Walz marked the occasion with a proclamation and the press with tributes — but nobody in power wants to talk about what actually failed.
The ritual is familiar by now: candles in windows, community gatherings, official declarations, and a press corps that amplifies the grief without interrogating the cause. Walz proclaimed Aug. 27 the "Annunciation Day of Hope, Resilience and Love," naming the two students killed — Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski — and urging Minnesotans to "hold our kids close enough to feel their hearts beat and we move our feet towards peace," according to FOX 9.
"Move our feet towards peace" is a fine sentiment. It is also empty. The proclamation names no policy failure. It doesn't address how the shooter obtained the weapon, what law enforcement missed, or what Walz's own administration — in power since 2019 — might have done differently. A proclamation costs nothing. Accountability costs something.
FOX 9's coverage follows the standard template: where to volunteer, what to donate, how to participate. A community remembrance at Pearl Park offered flower planting and school supply drives. Annunciation parent Mike Roaldi told the station that Principal Matt DeBoer's statement — "When you pray, move your feet" — became the community's guiding principle. The school has held nightly Rosary services at 9 p.m. since the shooting. Residents were asked to place two candles in their windows for Fletcher and Harper.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press, for its part, couldn't manage actual reporting on the anniversary at all — its page on the shooting returned nothing but obituary submission guidelines and pricing ($162 minimum, $125 per photo). The paper that serves this community offered readers instructions on how to pay to publish a death notice instead of any examination of why those deaths happened.
Here is what neither outlet addresses: what went wrong. How did the shooter get the gun? Were there warning signs law enforcement ignored? Did any agency fail? Were existing laws enforced? Was there a mental health intervention that never came? These are the questions that matter to parents who want their children safe — not vigils that let officials off the hook while producing good footage.
The Annunciation community grieves in good faith. The politicians and press covering them perform grief instead of demanding answers. Walz oversees the systems that were supposed to prevent this. His proclamation offers comfort to the living while sparing himself scrutiny.
Until someone in power is willing to name the failure, the candles will keep coming out — and the next anniversary will look exactly like this one.
