A friend of mine posted that, in the wake of yesterday’s shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, that telling people to love each other wasn’t working. He was “out of ideas’.
So am I.
This week, a Gwinnett County police officer was laid to rest after being killed in the line of duty. (I had knee surgery Wednesday. One of the nurses who took care of me is the wife of a Gwinnett County police officers. All I could say to her was that I was sorry all of this had happened.)
This week, a man was arrested for sending pipe bombs to a number of prominent Democrats, including the Clintons and the Obamas. A photo of his van shows it decorated in anti-Democrat, pro-Trump slogans.
And then yesterday came a shooting that left 11 people dead.
I’m out of ideas.
I’m out of ideas in how to stop this hate, this killing, this absolute anger that’s convulsed our country in ways we haven’t seen since 1968.
I feel like I MUST march in lock step with a certain political agenda, or else I will be shamed and shunned, even by people I know.
We don’t listen. We’re more interested in screaming at each other.
What is it going to take, people?
Another 9/11?
Another Civil War?
Something worse than that?
I don’t know.
I just now that I will totally helpless.
Like my friend, I am out of ideas.
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
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Showing posts with label mass shootings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mass shootings. Show all posts
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Monday, October 2, 2017
Going back to my morning coffee . . .
How can I go back to my morning coffee after hearing about the horrific events last night in Las Vegas, Nevada?
And yet, that's exactly what I am doing.
I am writing this at around 11 a.m., Eastern time, with a coffee container to my left. I woke this morning to hear a report of 20 dead and multiple wounded in Las Vegas. A half-hour later, the death toll had risen to 50.
By now, we all know the drill: Lone gunman, usually a white male, who opens fire on a crowd with a military-style weapon, then shoots himself as the police close in on him. It's happened before. It will probably happen again. It happened at Columbine (in that situation, there were two gunmen). It happened in Orlando. It happened at Sandy Hook. Last night, it happened in Las Vegas.
And here I sit, going back to my morning coffee.
I've grown numb to the reports of violence, shootings, and stabbings in our world. What was once a shocking, horrific, rare event has become commonplace. I don't even know how many mass shootings we have had in the last ten, twenty years. Statistics depend on how you define the term "mass shooting".
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the shooting. However, they have no evidence that they did it. I will remind people that in the very early moments of 9/11, the PLO claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Twin Towers, and it turned out they didn't do it.
My friend Bron just posted the following tweet: "We have reached a density of mass shootings where even pointing out that we aren't going to do anything feels tired and oversaid.@emmettRensin"
We, as a country, are just tired and numb. We're overrun with violence and bad news. I have a filter on my Facebook feed that keeps out things I don't want to read about, and even then, reports of violence and turmoil creep in.
Which is probably why I go back to my morning coffee.
What is there left to be said? What is there left to be done? Calls for gun control fall on deaf ears, and our pleas to "love one another" and "stop the hate" seem to do no good.
Right now, I say my prayers for the people of Las Vegas, for the first responders, for the dead and wounded, even for the soul of the shooter, and for his family.
And then, I end up going back to my morning coffee. :-(
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
And yet, that's exactly what I am doing.
I am writing this at around 11 a.m., Eastern time, with a coffee container to my left. I woke this morning to hear a report of 20 dead and multiple wounded in Las Vegas. A half-hour later, the death toll had risen to 50.
By now, we all know the drill: Lone gunman, usually a white male, who opens fire on a crowd with a military-style weapon, then shoots himself as the police close in on him. It's happened before. It will probably happen again. It happened at Columbine (in that situation, there were two gunmen). It happened in Orlando. It happened at Sandy Hook. Last night, it happened in Las Vegas.
And here I sit, going back to my morning coffee.
I've grown numb to the reports of violence, shootings, and stabbings in our world. What was once a shocking, horrific, rare event has become commonplace. I don't even know how many mass shootings we have had in the last ten, twenty years. Statistics depend on how you define the term "mass shooting".
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the shooting. However, they have no evidence that they did it. I will remind people that in the very early moments of 9/11, the PLO claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Twin Towers, and it turned out they didn't do it.
My friend Bron just posted the following tweet: "We have reached a density of mass shootings where even pointing out that we aren't going to do anything feels tired and oversaid.@emmettRensin"
We, as a country, are just tired and numb. We're overrun with violence and bad news. I have a filter on my Facebook feed that keeps out things I don't want to read about, and even then, reports of violence and turmoil creep in.
Which is probably why I go back to my morning coffee.
What is there left to be said? What is there left to be done? Calls for gun control fall on deaf ears, and our pleas to "love one another" and "stop the hate" seem to do no good.
Right now, I say my prayers for the people of Las Vegas, for the first responders, for the dead and wounded, even for the soul of the shooter, and for his family.
And then, I end up going back to my morning coffee. :-(
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
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