Our Tears Aren’t Enough
How long can we simply hug our children goodbye every morning while saying a silent prayer that no-one shows up at their daycare or their school and shoots them?
What will it take for those of us who speak about love and compassion to begin to actually stand up, do something and demand better?
What will it take for us to stop blaming other cultures, other skin colours, other believes, other religions, and start looking at ourselves as part of the problem?
When will we start to realize that when we supported elected officials who chose to trim mental health budgets, we also elected people who do not stand up for the most vulnerable and those that need the most help? And by keeping them safe, we keep other safe?
When will actually understand the importance of our democratic rights and freedoms that so many of our grandparents and great-grandparents fought for in the first and second world war? Why don’t more people vote and use their democratic right to demand better? Why aren’t people calling their elected officials and demanding they listen?
Why are we so invested in the liberal/conservative or the democratic/republic ideology that we cannot lift ourselves above it and see what this is all doing to our society?
I saw we, because this is so much greater then just our elected officials. This, right now, the world we live in, isn’t just a matter of those terrorists or those with mental health issues or those immigrants. It’s not just about those who are different from what we knew growing up. And it sure as heck is not just about the color of your skin who the person you choose to love.
This is all of us and all of our lives. This is all of our basic democratic freedoms. Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in a democratic society, have a duty, a basic responsibility to use this right and demand better. And if we don’t start actually using this right, we wont have it for much longer.
This is not simply a United States of America problem. Even if we don’t like it, the USA is viewed as the leader of the free world. This is a world problem. This is a we problem. We, as the world, as living, breathing human beings, owe it to everyone who has died at the hands of a gun wielding person. We owe it to those who have lost their innocent lives because someone had a semi-automatic or automatic rifle that shouldn’t have had a gun, let alone one designed to kill the most amount of people in the shortest time frame. Sadly, and infuriatingly, we also owe it the innocent people who are going to die next – it could be my son or my parent or my friend or my spouse or me. It could also be you. And it could also be your child. Your parent. Your friend. Or your spouse.
How long can we stand by and watch our society fall further into chaos?
I’m sick of reading the morning news, with tears running down my cheeks. I’m sick of reading twitter and blogs, with tears running down my cheeks. Our tears aren’t enough. They wont do a damn thing!
When did it become part of our lives that yearly/monthly/weekly mass shootings are okay? When will we learn? What will it actually take for us to do something? I learned this lesson in 1999 after the tragic and senseless killings at Columbine High School, and yet, here we are are, almost 20 years later and it seems as though no-one else learned a damn thing. The innocent casualties just keep piling up. Records for worst mass shootings just keep being broken. What will it take for us to make much needed policy changes? How many innocent people have to lose their lives? How many mass shootings do we have to endure? How many times are we going to turn a blind eye? How many times are we going to continue to let this happen?
Has it really become the goal of the our modern society to self-implode? Has it really become our goal to place the rights of individuals to own guns above the basic safety of our society at large? Are we actually just waiting for the third world war, the war that will likely end all wars by ending society to happen?
.
And for me, as a mother, I have to ask, how do I raise my bi-racial, dual citizen/immigrant son, in this world? How do I teach him that his birth country is safe, when innocent people continue to be killed en masse? How do I teach him that he is more then just the colour of his skin, when clearly that’s not true in our world today? How do I teach him that this world is safe? How do I teach him to help the most vulnerable when society doesn’t help those most in need? How do I teach him that good always wins, when it sure seems like evil is prevailing and good has forgotten to show up for the battle?
Please, someone, just tell me how? Because, right now, I’m at a complete loss.
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My Perfect Breakdown 
Amen to this! I’m disgusted by the number of people I know who still think that we would be taking away some fundamental freedom if we stopped allowing access to assault weapons. Or argue that “bad people” would still get ahold of them anyhow. The arguments are selfish and ridiculous. So, thanks you. I shared your post on my FB page. *hugs* because we all need them right now.
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Thank you my friend. We really do need hugs and love right now.
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I understand. It’s a scary time to be raising children. I hate that the world has changed so much, so quickly. I pray all the time for the safety of my children and i try not to live in fear… but I am afraid. Not just for us, but for everyone. It’s absolutely crazy….
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Such scary times!!! I too am afraid, for everyone. All we can continue to do is love and share positivity. I firmly believe good will prevail!
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My sister and I were talking about how it feels almost apocalyptic. I know that is dramatic but in some ways it truly does. I am just trying to be the light I want to see in the world. However it can manifest- donating blood, being kind when someone else isn’t, small acts of kindness, anything. I feel like that is a start.
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It is absolutely the start we need!!! And if anyone can lead us out of our apocalyptic state, it’s you my friend. Your compassion, love, endless care for others is exactly what we need!!! Please keep being you, so that you keep inspiring others to let their light shine through.
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At the risk of being a major Debbie Downer. . . when our lawmakers did nothing after 20+ children in kindergarten and their teachers were killed (Sandy Hook in December 2012), I gave up hope that anything will ever change in this country. Sad but true. If that didn’t spur them to action, nothing will, especially with the current “leadership.”
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You are not a major Debbie Downer. Gosh, Sandy Hook still brings tears to my eyes, and the only reason I didn’t reference it was Columbine was the first one I remember in my life, it was the moment when I saw kids my own age being killed. For me, that was a major event in my personal life and I don’t understand how change wasn’t made then!! Sandy Hook should never have been able to happen!!
And it pains to me say, I think you’re right. If 20+ dead kindergarten children couldn’t spur change, what will?
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You are so right in this statement.
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And if anyone tries to bring up gun control, they are blasted down by republicans saying “now isn’t the time”. Well, when is the time?! sure, there will always be bad people, but why make it so easy for them to have access to assault riffles/machine guns, etc.
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There is no time like the present to deal with this!! In fact, it should have been dealt with years ago!! I too am sick of the “now isn’t the time” response.
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I feel like a negative Nelly when I read your blog post today. I was like, “When was the world ever safe?” I grew up in New Orleans. I remember in 4th grade being put on lockdown because they found a gun and bullets in the boy’s bathroom, and after that having a policeman roam the halls and the classroom doors were locked during class time from the inside (we could get out, but you had to knock to get in). This was at least 6 or 7 years BEFORE Columbine.
The way my parents raised me was to believe that the world was a beautiful, incredible place full of opportunities and imaginations and joy, but that it was also, equally, full of angry, hurt people who wanted others to feel angry and hurt with them, and that they believe the only way to do that was to be hurtful. Stranger danger has always been a thing. Death has always been a thing. The first funeral I went to was a little boy who had cancer. He had been in remission but then got sick and quickly passed away the second time. He was younger than me.
But where I find solace is in that speech by Mr. Rogers. “In times of tragedy, look for the helpers. There are always people who are helping.” Yes, there was an awful man who did incredibly awful things in Las Vegas. But more than that man were the men and women who did incredibly heroic things that same night. Those who first responded, those who ran into the fire without hesitation. Look for the helpers. Look for the hope. That’s how I can even keep my head above the water at times.
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Well said. I just do not understand how this keeps happening and our society continues to DO NOTHING about it. I try so hard to not love in fear of the worst happening to my loved ones but it’s so difficult to not keep this in the back of my mind at all times.
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Love should be live sorry!
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I don’t know if you saw the speech that Jimmy Fallon did, but it was a really great one. His words couldn’t have been more true. When there were fires in Las Vegas hotels, actions were taken to very quickly change the building laws so it wouldn’t happen again. But here we are, with how many mass shootings going on and innocent lives taken, families torn apart forever, and it is still “not the right time” to talk about it. The second amendment, allowing common citizens to have guns was written in 1791. 1791!!! 226 years ago. How the American people can feel that a law that was written 226 years ago is still valid today is insane. 200 years ago there were no automatic rifles that could take out hundreds of people in a span of 5 minutes. The world is a much, much different state now and there is absolutely 100% no need for Americans to have the right to purchase assault rifles. I have so many thoughts on this that I can’t even get them straight as I try to write. I agree with everything you said. The time for change is now, and the American voice needs cry out in outrage and push the law makers to recognize this huge, HUGE problem and start taking action now.
Today I had an especially hard time dropping my son off to daycare and having to leave him after giving him a kiss and telling him I love him.
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It’s a sad, sad world we live in. And with “leaders” who do nothing to help the problem, and use social media to taunt and bully others themselves, there will be no change at all. It just kills me to know that I’ve finally reached my biggest goal of becoming a parent…and now THIS is the world that I’m bringing my children into. I’m hoping by the time she gets big enough to realize what’s happening in the world around her, that things will have changed, at least a little bit.
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