Today

To say today was busy is a gross understatement. From work training to special activities to 2 church services & an individual music therapy session, not to mention family & Valentine’s Day on top of all of that, and all I want to do is fall into bed for the next 24 hours. It was in the busiest moments of the day that I heard about the latest school shooting, this time in South Florida. I didn’t have much time to do anything but think, “Wow, another one...that really sucks,” and then it was time to continue with everything else of the day...until I listened to the sermon at my church’s evening Ash Wednesday service. The message was bold and necessary: we MUST do better. This is the 30th mass shooting this year, & it’s only the middle of February. 

We MUST do better.

There are those who would say that stricter gun control laws would just take rights away from responsible gun owners & put them in the hands of criminals. There are those who are terrified that if a few extra regulations are passed, it will be the beginning of losing all their guns. There are those who say the mass shootings aren’t a “gun control” problem, they’re a “heart” problem. Or “we don’t need more gun control, we need more money for mental health services.” 

Which I agree with 100%, but that’s another topic for another time. 

Almost 8 years ago, I lost a son to natural causes that likely couldn’t have been prevented, but how many parents have had to bury their children as a result of these shootings? How many of those deaths could’ve been prevented if only we the people or the Congress people we elected would do SOMEthing or offer something even resembling an idea towards a solution? 

We MUST do better.

Offering thoughts & prayers without action is remaining complicit in the face of potentially preventable tragedies. Offering thoughts & prayers without action is officially insensitive & insulting. Offering thoughts & prayers without action is bullshit. 

We MUST do better

I completed one of our required annual trainings this morning, & the man doing the training gave a hypothetical example that had one outcome when if someone had done something differently, it could’ve potentially changed the outcome of the entire situation. How can we say “this or that wouldn’t work” when we’ve never even tried it? And isn’t it worth trying to do SOMEthing for the possibility that the outcome wouldn’t be yet another mass shooting?

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and over again but expecting different results. 

As a country, that’s exactly what we do. There’s a mass shooting followed by grief, sadness, outrage, anger, and we look on in horror & try to begin a conversation of “what can we do?” Then every idea that might be brought to the table of discussion is shot down. And something else happens in the world or with our government that takes our attention, & unless we’re one of the ones personally affected, we slowly but surely shift our focus and forget. Until it happens all over again. Rinse and repeat. Over and over and over and over again. 

We MUST do better