I sat back yesterday, I watched and I wept. Yes, I wept. In fact, I am still weeping, I can’t stop my tears from falling.
Israelites encounter undrinkable, bitter water on their journey
Every single time I read anything about the Sikh temple murders I start crying again. Not because I am personally related to any of the victims, rather because I am connected through my humanity, through my empathy and through my compassion for their loss.
We should, all of us be connected to them, weeping for them and reaching out to them in their pain with our sympathy. We should all be standing shoulder to shoulder with them offering our human compassion. We should all be offering to mourn with them.
When will it be enough?
When will there be enough innocent lives piled at the door of the NRA and those who do their bidding for sane people to say ‘no more’.
When will we say we have seen enough senseless death on our streets, in our town squares, in our public buildings, our schools and places of worship to demand change and stand up to the bullies. When will we stop, as a nation and a people, kowtowing to these tyrants with corporate money and an agenda that has nothing to do with our safety, our peace of mind and everything to do with xenophobia and fear-mongering. When?
Isn’t enough?
What will it take for us to change the hearts of the heartless?
I am not going to throw statistics out there of all the innocents dead this decade, or even this year; these numbers are easily found. I am not going to rail at those who demand their rights in the face of the horrifying and senseless violence; this clearly falls on deaf ears. I will only say this; I am speechless, heartbroken in truth at the depths we have fallen, the bitter water we drink and call it sweet.
I leave you with this, because this is what the victims will not have –
525,600 minutes or another Season of Love
QBG_Tilted Tiara 
What a tragedy this is. There is enough sadness in the world.
Clearly not enough yet to force us to sit across from each other and talk.
Val,
My response to all that is hateful and hurtful and wrong with the world today is to ignore it. Some things I can;t, and truly I know that it is a cowardly way to act and not the right thing to do. There are many things that in theory are solid and right but once adding the human element, with a voice of demand and true ignorance becomes the principle by which we are destroyed. Why is it that the one man, the one who takes it too far is the voice that everyone hears. Because he chooses to yell loudest? Why is it that the voice of reason and compassion and tolerance and righteousness is but a whisper… It is my belief for I have seen it work, that the whisper is stronger than the loudest yell… for the ability to sustain it and the truth it carries, and the respect it commands. All it takes it for a few to recognize its existence, a few to stop yelling to listen,. then insist those around them do the same by pointing out it is there so that they are able to hear … it may take a lot longer to be heard, for it can not hope to drown out the yell but the whisper has reason and truth in it, it can be sustained for longer then a yell, for it does not change with over use, does not become hoarse from strain, It is similar to the wind and the sun, the oak and the willow even…. it seems as if the yell has taken over, but the whisper will still be there .. as long as there is still time…
you my friend are like the willow, the sun and the soft whisper, do not give up hope…
Lizzie
My hope, there are times it is hard to hang onto. My whisper is drowning some days. But continue I will because I don’t know any other way.
Val
You have said it…the hearts of the heartless.
We will never understand because we have hearts, even be they broken.
Love,
Red.
xxx
I know, but still I ask why, why, why. When does it stop? What price our freedom? Why is it so hard to understand we cannot purchase our freedom at the expense of these tragedies, these senseless deaths.
Val
It does not until it affects those who are busy making the laws. Even then, it may just be used to get them out of office.
I think that might be terrible, more terrible even.
When will enough be enough? There’s been too much senseless killing for far too long. . .
I know and it just seems to be escalating. We are nation of fools down here in the US these days. It is chilling quite frankly.
I just read in the paper this morning that more people are now buying guns to protect themselves. More people carrying concealed weapons does not seem like the answer to me. It seems downright scary.
Yes, that is such a good plan right. More idiots with guns, untrained and unlikely to know what to do in case of emergency.
I am truly more saddened than anything else.
Val
Unfortunately, the NRA cares about itself first and foremost .. and given the court rulings, thus sadly, I can’t see it changing.
Something has to change, soon. We are turning into a frightening place to live.
Val, that was a great, hopeful, inspiring song. I’d not heard it before. It put me back in time to when I was a more innocent person. I think I’d like to go back.
That is one of the songs from Rent, one of my favorite off-Broadway. It ended a very long run and this was their swan song. I love this one, it is hopeful but sad also.
i read it somewhere people never learn nything from happiness cos it never leaves any scars but we dont learn from hate and rage either,we dont let scars teach us anything..how many more lives will have to be taken before it gets to every ones head that killing will never solve anything.
yesterday it was sikhs but before that the batman shooting incidents,and before that..and before that…and after all this nothing will change
tomorrow some one else will take up a gun and kill more..only the name ,country,or what ever his tags will be different..but he will kill
we have to shed the tags we have to …to begin any process..
There is 1.5 people, mostly young people dying in the streets of Chicago this year of gun violence.
Nothing changes.
You well know that lawmakers who pass laws that allow certain ‘priviledges’ are made in order for them to access those rights, so there’s a trickle down effect. The human condition, in almost any direction you turn, is in a sad state.
As a victim of violence each time this happens my rage surfaces, perhaps some survivor guilt also. I don’t know why this is, this survivor guilt but I feel helpless at the feet of both the rage and the guilt. My fury is breaking me, shaking me apart.
The ever so Holier than Thou, pick up a gun and shoot up a temple while wearing a tattoo of 9/11 and a shaven head drives me toward my fury. Wrapping ourselves in Flags and Bibles while excusing our violence with our exceptionalism is inexcusable, especially when it comes tightly wrapped with bigotry, xenophobia and now we add the hate being laid like a bed of flowers for the LBGT community and women again.
I am weary, my fury is making me weary. I chained myself to my first radiator when I still a child in protest of Agent Orange and Vietnam. That was many years ago, it seems as though we have not progressed at all. If anything it is worse than ever.