Time For Change Is Now

As I watch the wall to wall never ending, non stop coverage of the atrocious events of today, I am hit with this single, solitary, isolated thought: It’s time for change. The status quo isn’t working. To sit here and watch the breaking news on all the channels and act like I haven’t seen this play out before or as if I haven’t heard the story before is not accurate. We’ve all seen it before. We’ve all heard it before. Why did this happen? How could this happen? What a crazy lunatic psycho. How evil. We mourn the dead. We cry. We pray. And we talk. We say a lot of things. But words are only words. They are lip service. We talk. And every single word we say is empty, hollow and meaningless. The blood is still spilled. The dead are still dead. The children are still crying. The guns are still locked and loaded. In fact, I'm certain the sale of guns will peak right after what has happened. So if we are going to talk, we must talk about something real, something substantive. And we must do it right now. It’s not politicizing. It’s not in poor taste. It’s not disrespecting the victims. It’s honoring them. It’s mourning the way they were lost, unfairly, needlessly and senselessly. We owe it to them to have this discussion and to come up with a solution. And that solution is change. I don’t want to hear that guns don’t kill people—people kill people. I am aware of that. And I am not naïve enough to think that becoming stricter on gun availability and accessibility will curtail the gun violence completely. I know it won’t.  I agree that if somebody wants to kill somebody and do bad things, they will find a way to do it. But there is not one good reasonable explanation for any civilian to be able to carry and purchase semi-automatic handguns and assault rifles. The only thing these weapons are for is to inflict pain upon humans. I come from a hunting family. I grew up around a hunting culture. And there is not one animal I know that one of these weapons or one of the extended magazine clips is needed for. Not one. The only thing being hunted down in that instance is humans. I also believe that saying guns don’t kill people people kill people is a huge giant bullshit cop out on taking any accountability. It’s acquiescing the criminals and is the equivalent of looking the other way while they spray their bullets. It’s enabling in its simplest form.  While having a discussion today, I heard two people tell me that it’s all free will. People will find a way to harm others if that’s their intent. While I can’t argue that point, I do say we can make it more difficult for them to inflict such damage. I’m not talking about banning all guns. I believe in the constitution and the right to bear arms. It’s a fundamental right of this country. But you know what else I believe in? I believe in a child’s right to go to school without being shot. I believe in the right to go to a theater or shopping mall or house of worship without being shot. I believe in the right to walk down the street without being shot. At what point do we say that our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is being infringed upon by people with license to carry and conceal. You have the freedom to carry a gun and fire for your protection. But what about my protection from you? Does that right not count as much? I have heard some other people say that the problem isn’t that we need to restrict guns so tragedies that happen aren’t so commonplace, but that more people need to carry. If only more people were armed in that theater or at Congresswoman Giffords public event or in that shopping mall the damage wouldn’t have been so severe. So what about today? What are they going to say now? Arm our six year olds before they go to kindergarten each day? Teach them to shoot first and run later? What is wrong with us for that to be our solution? How is that a sane or rational or reasonable response to these senseless acts of violence? I find myself disturbed by this reaction. And then it hits me: this is part of the problem. The culture of this country is part of the problem these things happen. Now don’t get me wrong, the only ultimate one responsible is the culprit of these atrocities. They deserve the blame. But to think that they are the only problem or that there are no other issues that help create these tragedies is just living in a fantasy world devoid of truth. We think the answer to violence is more violence. We believe that we protect ourselves by buying more ammo and bigger guns. That’s what we cultivate. We teach that to each other by each action we take. And make no mistake about it, inaction is much an action as anything else. To sit back quietly and say guns don’t kill people, people kill people is being a passive accomplice. To have evil prevail, all that must occur is for good people to sit back and do nothing and just accept the status quo as it is and say it will never change. They say change won’t work. How do we know that unless we try? We know that our current landscape isn’t working. In fact, it’s getting worse. The number of gun related deaths is on the significant and substantial rise. The violence is simply getting worse and more blood is being spilled as our collective consciences are being desensitized each time one of these incidents occur. We begin to believe our fate. We think nothing will change. But we must try. We cannot continue down this path we are on. We will not survive it. Our children will continue to die and cry and shed tears and blood. And is that what we want our legacy to be? That we just became silent on things that matter? “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent on the things that matter.” Martin Luther King was correct when he said this. Our morality and our humanity has decayed and deteriorated to the point of no return. We have become divorced of decency and compassion. We have become numb to all of this. And it has to change. Nobody who wants to see change wants to see guns banned. Or the large majority doesn’t. We just want to see stricter and more regulated laws on the books. Right now, it’s easier to get a semi-automatic handgun and to buy bullets than it is to get cold medicine or to vote.What’s wrong with us? Where have our values gone? Why are we so behind the rest of the world? Look at so many other countries and ask what are they doing right that we are screwing up so royally? What is so different between them and us? We have nearly as many deaths each year from gun related violence as other countries would have in years. Why is Canada or Australia or England so different? They have guns. They have people with guns. Why do they not have the gun violence we do? I don’t know. I honestly don’t. But they are doing something right. Let’s figure out their model and try to model it. Regulating guns is not a bad thing. It’s not unconstitutional. In fact, the exact wording of the second amendment is: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The key word everyone always wants to overlook or pass over is well regulated. Even our founding fathers knew that the right to bear and keep arms had its limitations. They wanted such a right to be regulated. And also it talks about militia. That means members of the militia which today are members of the military and the police force. So if you go by the very words of the second amendment, regulation should be established for citizens rights to bear arms. And also, let’s keep in mind that when our founding fathers established the constitution they had muskets and cannons. They didn’t have uzis or AK-47s or .9mm or Glocks or rocket launchers. The key to maintaining the constitution is to understand that as society grows and evolves and changes, so can the words and interpretations of the constitution. It’s called progress. And it’s easy to hold onto old ways of thinking but sometimes we must face the cold, hard, brutal truth set before us: that old way of doing things doesn’t work any longer. Too many people are being murdered, too much blood is being spilled, and too much violence is paralyzing us as a nation. We need to adjust. We need to modify. That’s what life is all about. It’s about learning from our past mistakes and from not maintaining the status quo just because it’s easier than taking a stand and demanding change. What changes can be made? I don’t know. I don’t have the answers. I am just like everyone else. I am confused, I am shaken to my core with my confidence and my faith, I am finding my hope is barely hanging on as each day passes, and I am mad as hell also; mad at the perpetrators who carry out such evil atrocities towards fellow men, women, and as we saw today even children. But we can’t just get mad and get sad and then do nothing. The victims are owed more than our sorrow or our condolences or our refusal to even discuss making changes. They deserve and command our undivided attention. They need us to start communicating and discussing and finding something different, something better. We cannot keep pretending that the current way of life is working. It’s in need of serious alterations. And let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that we can ever eradicate the evil that exists in our society completely or that the perverse and macabre will disappear if we work hard enough to stop it. It will still exist. I am not naïve enough to think that. I am a God fearing person and I know that as long as there is life on earth, evil will exist. I understand that. I even accept that. But I won’t accept us just thinking we can’t do everything in our power to reduce and subvert the evil as much as we can. We are soldiers of the Almighty and we must do our part. It won’t be easy. There are no easy answers. There are no easy questions. But we must find a way. I am still hurting so much from today’s events and my sorrow won’t seem to ease up at all. I keep thinking of my own nieces who are in school and what I would do if it were them who had been victims. And I know that they now have to go to school with that fear in the back of their minds. And I'm not complacent enough to think it won't happen where I live. It can and will happen anywhere and if we don't take a stand right now to make a change it will happen here someday. I can’t even begin to imagine that scenario but I also know that that is what motivates me to stand up and say enough is enough. Not one more child can be lost to this senseless heartless violence. Not one more ounce of blood can be shed in this country from an innocent bystander caught with the bullet of a mad man. And we cannot keep going on this sick cycle carousel. It’s nauseating and sickening. We need to find a way to end the suffering and to obtain a new normal. We must try and expand our mental health outreach to find some people struggling with their inner demons and monsters who eventually reach their breaking point and decide to take out as many with them as they can and create as much carnage as humanly possible. We need to focus on getting those lost souls help before they grab the gun as the medication or as their solution. We have to make it harder for people to acquire ammunition and weapons. And we need to ban semi-automatic assault weapons which serve no purpose on earth besides bringing about death, depravity and chaos. It is time people. We must take a stand. I’m going to quote a Michael Jackson song and ask how many victims must there be slaughtered in vain across the land  and how many children have to die before we stand to lend a healing hand? Every day we are creating our history and writing our legacy. And our actions as well as our inaction and our screams as well as our silence will be written in the books for future generations to read and know. How do we want that history and legacy to look? When you look in the mirror ask yourself that question. What is my legacy going to be? What will they learn about me and from me? Can you live with yourself when you say guns don’t kill people but people kill people and just enable the perversity and malice to keep happening? I understand the sentiment. I do. At the end of the day, we are all individually responsible for our actions. But we are also here to help each other out as much as we can. I believe it isn’t just a kind thing to do but the right and moral thing to do. Are we going to really just sit back and stay silent and wash our hands of it by accepting the status quo? Are we okay with more innocence being lost and stolen far too prematurely? Are we okay with the blood pouring out of bodies? Because we all wear the stains of those lost when we choose to do nothing to change things. I sincerely hope and pray that we can all come together and unite to find the answers and be the solution. I also sincerely believe that in life, you are either part of the problem or you are a part of the solution and that you either get it or you don’t. I want us all to be the solution and to get it. Join me won’t you and make my sincerest belief the reality of the times. 

We’re innocently standing by
Watching people lose their lives
It seems as if we have no voice
It’s time for us to make a choice
They’ve gotta hear it from me
They’ve gotta hear it from you
They’ve gotta hear it from us
We can’t take it we’ve already had enough

Those lyrics from Michael Jackson’s song We’ve Had Enough has been echoing in my head all day since this news first broke. And it’s the truth. We have had enough and we have to raise our voice. We must stand up together as one and unite. Because as he also says in the song “there’s nothing that can’t be done if we raise our voice as one” so let’s stand up and lift up and do it for all the victims of violence---not just today but every day before. They deserve that from us. We must speak for them since they can’t speak for themselves any longer. Will you stand with me today? Let’s look at the man in the mirror and make that change. I believe in us. Do you believe in us too?

In honor of all the victims of violence in CT and all around the world.

Rest in Peace