Friday, February 16, 2018

Here We Are

So here we are...another day, another mass shooting.

We’re all praying for those lost and their families and those injured.  We’re grateful for the first responders.

The gun lobby owns Congress for the most part so they will have a moment of silence...and DO NOTHING ELSE.

So it’s up to us.

If you see something say something.  How many times have you heard that phrase?  How often have you done it?

Talk to you kids.  I know most teenagers would rather Snaptagram their lives away rather than talk to their parents.  Sit them down and talk to them.  Know what is going on in their lives. Know who their friends are.  Know who the class outcast is.  If your kids grouse about it, tell them too bad.

If there are any teenagers reading this...talk to your parents.  If you’re not comfortable talking to them, find an adult you trust.  If you know someone who is acting strange...SAY SOMETHING!  To them, to a teacher, to your parents.  It might be nothing, but it could be something.

Parents, a generation of kids is growing up that is having difficulty coping.  Is it the participation trophies?  Is it the fact that many kids these days are told that the shit rainbows from the day they are born?  Maybe.  Tell you kid that life isn’t fair and then teach them how to navigate through the times when it isn’t fair.

Teach them that the world owes them nothing.  Teach them that life is precious.  Teach them to be kind, to say hello to the kid sitting alone at lunch.  Teach them that the violent video games they like to play do not portray normal acceptable behavior.  Teach them to take responsibility for their actions.

Lawmakers...where do we start?  If you’re not going to strengthen gun laws, how about we take another look at healthcare in this country?  How about funding school counselors? How about delving into the mental health situation here in the US and how it is becoming a crisis.  How about we throw more than words at the opioid crisis.  How about investing in active shooter training in all schools?

How about we make as big a deal of lives lost in a school shooting as we do over an aborted fetus?  Some people want to defund Planned Parenthood because they offer abortion.  How about defunding the NRA?  Dead is dead.  You don’t get to pick and choose your right to life beliefs.  You believe or you don’t.

If you’re a lawmaker and you’ve taken money from the NRA, you have blood on your hands same as if you pulled the trigger.

A child in school has to be worth AT LEAST AS MUCH as an unborn fetus.

Every lawmaker at every level should look at a mass shooting from the point of view of the family of a victim.  After all, these are the people you are sworn to serve.  What are you going to tell the moms and dads of the CHILDREN killed the other day?  How are you going to make it right?

How are the leaders of this country going to do better?  Here's a clue...the answer doesn't lie in a military parade, a border wall, tax cuts for the wealthy, soda taxes, pension bailouts, NRA contributions, conservative PACs, blaming the victims.  The answer lies in the people lawmakers are sworn to serve.  TALK TO THEM.  More importantly LISTEN TO THEM.

Back to us.  What are you going to do?  This isn't about a person's right to bear arms.  It's about taking back our safe places; schools, malls, concerts.  It's about taking back our lawmakers from a few people with a lot of money.  It's about challenging those with staunch religious beliefs to take their beliefs further than judging others and infringing their beliefs on others.  It's about inclusion and not exclusion.  It's about taking a message to those who make laws and policies; what we have in place isn't working.  It's about CHANGE.

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