@lovendures The wave of copy cat shooters just ooze out of the woodwork. I read today of an incident in West Virginia where a celebration/party/gathering was being held for graduating students and a man was racing his vehicle through the apartment complex.
He came back later with an AR-15 and began shooting in to the crowd. There was a woman there, who pulled out her piston and shot and killed the would be mass shooter.
I pray for her tonight...that she knows she saved many lives...even as it hurt to have to take a life.
It did not say.. but I suspect she was an off duty LEO.
In my meditations today I saw a bright beautiful expanse of grassland, like one sees in Montana, with fluffy white clouds and a strong wind blowing, blowing, blowing across the land... the shadows of the clouds racing across the land between the bursts of the suns rays.
There was an immense quiet and only a few deer grazing, no people. To me?Deer symbolize gentleness tempered with strength , the healing power of love and forgiveness, and their grace even when running away from a predator, and their innate intuitiveness and attention to details.If they have to exit a dangerous situation they do so gracefully and quickly.
From that I garnered the message that the winds of change are blowing, be alert, listen and act with grace and speed and courage when called upon.
Right now I am changing my stance on things and using my Twitter platform to be more vocal - because in an effort to not alienate anyone there I’ve avoided being too vocal about my views but I simply don’t care anymore. If more people stay quiet like I was there… silence and inaction are complacency.
The other thing I’m doing is targeting one voter in particular very hard. My mother. She was a lifelong democrat (and former union president) who went all in on TFG. Twice. While I love my mother, when we’ve gone down the path of discussing politics it’s gotten ugly. Very, very ugly. But for the past two weeks I’ve been texting her a new article from a reputable source every time something new happens. I had to explain to her why Roe being overturned could have resulted in her not having ever had her grandchildren (my twins were a product of IVF which, given Michigan’s existing anti-abortion law that Roe is suppressing, would essentially wipe out). This was a turning point. Today, in response to Texas I finally got her to listen on gun control. I’m going to de-program this woman before she leaves this plane. (Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I can’t go there anymore)
My very red state congressional district up north has a Democratic candidate running for the first time in forever. I joined her campaign last night (and got to meet the amazing Dana Nessel at her kickoff event!) I cannot go door to door in my area. I am surrounded by militia. Several neighbors were at the Capital. Several others were arrested in the Whitmer kidnapping plot. But I’ll use the texting software. I’ll write postcards. I’ll donate to her campaign. This one is futile - Northern Michigan will never flip.
But I will not go quietly into these midterms. I. Will. Not.
Sorry for the gloom and anger permeating everything I’ve posted this week. I just can’t take any more of this.
@dannyboy Oh Dannyboy - sending big hugs and seeing you wrapped in a blanket of warm, loving care. The hurts are big aren't they. So many, so fast, and hitting so hard.
Not everyone can lead the parade, some must stand , watch and clap. Everyone has a role to play and do what they can do - the very intent itself sends a wave of Energy in to the Collective and that helps bring about change and healing.
I am a survivor of domestic violence. Back in the early 70's? "What goes on between a husband and a wife is their business and theirs alone" "Keep your dirty laundry at home" I was beaten and abused for the 15 months it took me to break free and even after the divorce was final there were years of domestic terrorism and manipulation. I did everything I could to further the cause for women..still do. I donate to shelters,mothers with children and pets and foster pets for people, taking some in to my home that needed a soft place to land and hide out... help heal by listening and validating and sharing experiences. Advocating and voting for women's rights, women's protections. No.. I was not in a protest, I didn't march.... but I quietly did my part. I was a single mom that raised 2 kids without enforcement of child support, health care or educational funds. I was paid minimum wages and worked long hours.. came home and worked more, caring for my children, cooking meals, cleaning clothes and home, helping with homework, taking to functions they could attend without too heavy financial price. Thank God for good teachers, after school programs, libraries and Scouting and Band and cheerleading , Drama Club and Science Clubs and more.
Thank God for the good teachers who cared and helped with guidance to resources and help with funding and who loved my children as fiercely as I did.
Thank God for the DannyBoys and those like him.. who care and pour themselves out in to small bodies and young minds... and.... who choose to do what they can to speak their peace and their hearts.
Said with agape and genuine appreciation. You matter, you make a difference, I see it, I appreciate it and hold space for you as you grieve and take action.
I took to FB this morning and wrote a small passage on empathy. On taking a moment to understand what the victims went through. I talked about the students and what their last moments must have felt like. I talked about the teachers and the pain they would have experienced watching this happen to their students.
And finally I talked about the parents standing outside listening to the gunfire.
I then took an image of that and posted it on many threads on Twitter.
I am angry. Anyone who feels empathy is angry right now. I feel like part of the key right now is to not let the public shy away from those feeling of empathy. People will run from pain, none of us want to experience it. But when the words are poignant enough sometimes they will briefly empathize with the victims.
That empathy is the key. If you feel for someone, if you empathize, then you can no longer ignore that they are linked to you, that they are your brother or sister in spirit. It humanizes them.
Use your words, plant the seed of empathy. The more seeds of empathy we can plant, the more light we can bring. It is the very small part I can do. And deep inside I know, as much as some people want to ignore it, those who are not psychopaths will be bothered by my post and the seeds will grow.
@april @DannyBoy @JourneyWithMe2. Your posts are music to my ears. After Sandy Hook, I could hardly get over the tragedy and my depression. This time, I am outraged. I, too, am posting on FB a great deal and plan to keep it up. I'm asking for people to pledge not to vote for a single Republican until s/he refuses NRA money, backs background checks, signs on to ban assault weapons, and works in a bipartisan way to pass strong, meaningful legislation. It's spreading a bit. As for twitter, I'll do that to. If those of you who are already firing away on twitter have significant hashtags, please post them here and I'll jump on the wagon too. I'm convinced that until the Republican Party starts to lose membership and congresspeople over this, they will continue to tie themselves to guns and more guns.
@journeywithme2 bless you my friend. I teared up a little and felt the light you sent. I needed that. I really, really did.
@seeker4 every school shooting has affected me - as a teacher, as a father, as a human being. But I remember Sandy Hook specifically. The news broke while I was at work, my new job...not when I was still in the classroom. And I sat at my desk, helplessly watching the news reports. Sobbing quietly. I reached out to some former students. I promised them that if it had happened to us I would have taken an entire magazine of bullets myself to keep them safe. All of the shootings are terrible but Sandy Hook was ... something else entirely.
This one also feels different. I don't know if this was my reading from last year - where something happens around now and throughout the summer that hits at our core as a society. This feels like it could be part (but not all) of it. What a terrible thing to have read if this is part of it. I see now why my higher self wouldn't let me poke into it and get to the bottom if it is part of what I read. This is beyond comprehension. And the fact that the NRA is still holding their conference. That TFG is speaking, butchering the names of the children right now while the NRA rings that damn bell for each one.
This is wrong.
I will say it again.
I will NOT go quietly into these midterms. I will not.
Light and Love my friends. Light and love.
@dannyboy bless you, my friend.
The good news about the National Rifle Assholization conference today, was that there were actually more folks outside protesting it than there were inside attending it.
I hope that every one of those 19 cops who sat there for an hour gets called out. Until then, here is the email for the mayor of Uvalde- you may recall that he was the one who called Beto a "sick son of a bitch" when Beto called out Abbot's complicity, and "politicized" Abbot's political event, just after the shooting.
and here is the Uvalde Chief of Police:
So feel free to write them, and tell them how much you appreciate first
last responders. And maybe send them some white feathers of cowardice, or whatever you think they deserve.
Reading and hearing about Miah's story during the mass shooting has brought me to tears repeatedly today. Not only did she endure unspeakable trauma which I can't and won't write about here, she also was the repeated caller to 9-11, politely saying "please send police now". Today after learning police had waited outside the school she started crying, saying she just didn't understand why they didn't come inside and rescue them.
Yes, something has changed with this one. Not only is it on the scale of Sandy Hook, the ineptitude of police leadership is just mind boggling. The lying, the cowardliness, the betrayal of trust. Over and over and over again.
Dannyboy, you are not the only one who is now going vocal. My husband is also going vocal which is not typical. National figures are as well. The manager of the giants refused to got out of the dugout for the national anthem.
And boy on Twitter you should hear the furious nurses chewing out the police for how they responded, comparing police inaction because they were waiting for protection to when nurses willingly took care of covid patients before vaccinations with little to no PPE for protection from possible death from covid.
Here's a song by cheryl wheeler- "if it were up to me...i'd take away the guns"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op7agdIFOGY
@dannyboy, @unk-p, @lovendures, things sre different this time. Women and the feminine have been rising as we've talked about here. Moms are fed up with the lack of security for their children. The cops refused to go in after the children, but one mom tried to go in, got handcuffed, got released, and went in any way to save her kids. The link is to yahoo news, which has the story & a link to the original story on WSJ -which is behind a paywall.
At NRA protests, watch the women who are fed up step up & stop a man trying to be disruptive.
Abbott attended a fundraiser 300 miles away on the night of the shooting. He was clueless and it showed. This is why he's been canceling other events like attendance at the NRA conference- because he became aware of the optics after previous backlash. Not because it was the right thing to do. He's not fooling everyone, just those with blinders on. Beto's questions at the press conference showed what the current officials are like to the public. They can't change that.
Women are fed up- especially after the assaults on their rights, and now failing to protect children? This isn't to say that men aren't fed up too, just that women who previously wouldn't have responded to toxic masculinity are now saying, "Really? Watch this."
Oh, the times, they are a changin...
Thank you all for choosing to up your fighting in whatever way possible.
Did a quick scan on the NRA and got that the association will disband. I see that groups like the Proud Boys and the Bungaloo Boys will also disband.
Here is a picture of Trump speaking, smiling, and joking at the NRA Convention. It is from MSNBC on Velshi this morning. From his speech on Friday, May 27, 2022
I must admit there is a part of me.. that wants those adults to have to sit down and let each one of those surviving children walk up to them face to face and ask them " Why didn't you help us, you could have saved us, where were you???? I was so scared and I cried and prayed you'd come"Each child One by one as they file through single line of them sitting there and face them and repeat to each face.
Sometimes children need to face their abusers and ask them why. Sometimes they need to just process with people who care and understand and stay far away from the ilk of those people.
I would so have been one of those mothers in handcuffs and peppered sprayed...even then? That may not have stopped me.
I read a report that some of those LEO went in and got their children and left , there are 18 minutes of Recording that has vanished and mothers trying to go in to get their kids were pepper-sprayed and handcuffed and the LEO involved keep changing their story.
Not a lot I can do but I am writing to our senators and telling them what they are doing is not enough and they need to take action now. Not just the ones in my state.. all of them. It will take a bit of time... but.. I got time.. I make time.
I also wrote to Ted Cruz responding to his speech at the NRA "Taking away guns from responsible,law abiding Americans will not make our nation more secure" pointing out that the 18 year old was far from a responsible law abiding American and not even an adult. They can not trust kids to handle the truth of our history so they deny teachers teaching it, they ban books because Heaven forbid their little darlings learn to question and think... yet they think they are old enough to handle weapons made for war/combat??? Male brains are not even mature until age 25!!!! The laws on the books need to be enforced and waiting periods and background checks MUST be enforced and health care services must be in place to help when these people start spiraling out of control and cry out for help with their actions.
Nope... we will not be the "silent" majority any more.
i have also felt this way.
There was an amazing story today in I believe the Washington Post about how child victims of mass shootings have coped through the years. It is very impactful and insightful. A trio of Sandy Hook are just some of the students they covered. Those kids are 28 now and graduating high school .
yes. The shooting has forever changed their lives.
When Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head at a Tucson meet and greet at a Safeway parking lot in 2011, her survival was miraculous.
I sat glued to the breaking news on the t.v. that Saturday and just prayed the entire afternoon. I felt that if she survived, there was a reason for it and that she would inspire a nation, a movement.
She did and she has.
One of the things she founded was a PAC organization called Giffords.
Here is what they have to say about the latest shooting. Their talking points can be used to refute many of the pro-gun side talking points. I have copied it here but left out the part about making a contribution. If you wish to do so, you can always search for the organization and do so.
Yesterday afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the NRA convention and delivered an all-too predictable response.
We need to arm teachers, he said. We need to harden schools. He said every school should have one door to enter. We need fences and metal detectors, he said.
But here is the truth:
It’s not the doors. It’s not mental health. It’s not video games or fences. It’s not about arming teachers or the layout of schools.
It’s the guns.
Specifically, it’s the access to guns by people who shouldn’t have them—and it’s the weapons of war we allow to be carried on our streets by 18-year-olds.
The United States of America is not the only country in the world that has more than one door in their schools.
The United States is not the only country in the world that has people who have mental health problems, or who play video games.
But the United States IS the only country that suffers through these kinds of mass shootings with this kind of regularity.
And that is because we are the only country in the world whose leaders refuse to take the steps we need to keep people safe from gun violence.
You hit the nail on the head with your observations. This shooting will follow the usual pattern. There is death of innocents, and the shooter is inevitably an angry young man with access to an assault rifle that allows him to kill dozens without having to pause to reload his gun. The usual stuff on arming teachers is echoed. Of course, once all the teachers are armed and there is still a shooting, then the NRA will start advocating arming all the children too. So....yeah. Nothing will change.
Republicans won't change. They need the gun fanatics to strike fear in the hearts of all of us. There is no need for common sense gun control laws as far as they are concerned. They need this population to take over the country one day (January 6, 2021 was just a trial run). It seems like this is where we are heading.
And yet, despite everyone screaming about how our country is headed towards a civil war, I feel strangely calm.
As you all know, I am from an extremely red state (Tennessee) and I grew up with people spouting off how evil liberals are and how guns could only be taken from their dead bodies, etc. I grew up going to church and was taught religious doctrine like everyone else. But several events changed my way of thinking.
First, I couldn't understand the church's stance on sin. How could gays be destined for hell no matter what, yet a child predator could be forgiven and welcomed by Jesus by simply saying he was sorry? If a woman was drugged and raped while unconscious, how can she be accused of "putting herself in that situation"? Why must she shoulder the blame for the predators who did that to her? And how could church followers willfully ignore when others practice outright assault and even murder on those who don't agree with them (the murder of Matthrew Shepard in 1998 really caused me to question my fellow church goers who refused to condemn the actions of his killers because they didn't want to seem sympathetic to a gay man).
My point? These events caused me to abandon the evangelical way of thinking. And I don't doubt that the youth of this nation are watching Republicans and their allies continue to use violence against everyone who doesn't agree with them.
There will not be a civil war for several reasons. First, with every action, Republicans continue to alienate more and more people to the point that they will no longer be trusted. California is a classic example of this. Yes, I know California is not a place of paradise, but when Republicans had full control, they abused their power to the point that the state became very Democratic. Eventually, the same will occur in other areas of the country. Second, the rich and super wealthy can't afford a war in the US, as this will be bad for business. Third, the majority of red states are poorer, less educated, less healthy, etc. than blue states. If a civil war should break out, the red states would lose for the same reason they lost in 1865. Without the resources, you cannot win a protracted war.
But the biggest reason why there will not be a civil war is one very important reason. Simply put, the majority of these gun totting fanatics are cowards. Yes, they waive their guns around and threaten to shoot people, but the minute they see a barrel pointed at them, many of them panic. I know this, because I have personally faced down several of these people in my line of work. They talk a good game, but the minute they are challenged, they back down.
I see a time in the future when the public is no longer sympathetic to the Republican side and actually take control of the gun issue. It won't be a ban on guns, but all assault rifles will likely be banned and/or restricted. Because seriously, who needs them? You can't stop an intruder with a simple hand gun, then the problem isn't your gun, it is your aim. You don't need a AR-15 for hunting or protection anyway! The only thing that type of gun is useful for is military use or mass shootings, so why can kids get them!? Someday, people will cry "ENOUGH!" and pass laws to take these weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of these fanatics. Yes, some of them will fight back. But so what?! Most of them will simply grumble and complain, but that is all they do anyway. The ones who do pull something, well, at least we can arrest them on the spot for simply having the weapons, thus minimizing the risk. And eventually, the "point a gun at anything you don't like" way of thinking will be regulated to the minority outskirts, whilst the rest of us look at them in scorn.
Republicans won't change. And these people won't change. But if we can just get the right amount of outrage, then WE CAN CHANGE! We can dictate what happens at the top, and show that we won't back down. We don't need guns to do it. We need our actions and words to drown them out. The time to compromise on this issue is over. Now is the time for us to tell them to put up or shut up.
So they lied. Again.
The teacher did not leave the door propped open allowing the shooter to enter the school.
Thank goodness they have video evidence that she actually tried to save student lives and was not the reason he gained entry.
The teacher closed the door behind her.
“She saw the wreck,” Flanary told the newspaper. “She ran back inside to get her phone to report the accident. She came back out while on the phone with 911. The men at the funeral home yelled, ‘He has a gun!’ She saw him jump the fence, and he had a gun so she ran back inside.
“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was shooting. She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked.”
@lovendures Thank you for posting this. I had a suspicion this teacher wouldn’t leave the door ajar. Makes no sense
But the biggest reason why there will not be a civil war is one very important reason. Simply put, the majority of these gun totting fanatics are cowards. Yes, they waive their guns around and threaten to shoot people, but the minute they see a barrel pointed at them, many of them panic.
I was thinking about this the other day. The gun fanatics always point to point to the second amendment, but always seem to overlook the first part "A well-regulated militia..." The idea of regulation is right in the wording. In addition to regulating arms, maybe we should start requiring gun owners to be part of organized, regulated militias. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but hear me out. Actually require as part of gun-ownership (at least anything bigger than a handgun for personal protection) that they are must take part in regular physical, mental, and gun training that takes them away from their families and other responsibilities evenings and weekends; make them go to boot camp and during that time evaluate them for mental problems; make them meet military standards including physical standards that most of the lazy ones won't want to do; since they are then trained in using guns and they're part of the "militia" make them first to be drafted for war and also the first to send in when there's a situation. If they want to live out their gun fantasies, make the cowards put their money where their mouth is. Maybe we should start calling their bluff.
@melmystery I have actually proposed the same idea. Want to own a gun, especially an assault rifle? Mandatory 2 years of military service after boot camp training.