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| Photo from Public Domain |
Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Orlando, Las Vegas. These
cities, obscure to some and popular to others, are now forever linked by the
violence that has rained down on innocent people.
We grieve for the victims, feel for the survivors and
families that are affected. We can hold them in our thoughts and prayers. But
nothing –nothing – will ever be “normal” again. Not for them. Not for us.
For me, living in Bakersfield, a four-hour drive from Las Vegas, has
meant spur-of-the-moment weekend trips or planned vacations with friends to take in some
shows. One year we held our family reunion in Las Vegas. Its ease of getting
there by plane from anywhere in the country figured in to the decision.
Living in Bakersfield, the city known as Nashville West, means our neighbors and friends were at last Sunday night’s concert in Las Vegas. We
lost several. I, personally, didn’t know any of the folks whose names and photos have
appeared in the local paper and on the news.
But, I’m connected through friends and acquaintances and by
geography. To the 20-year old woman who loved country music. To the brave
gentleman who shielded his wife from the gunfire and lost his life. To the
Bakersfield police officer who was wounded. To the woman from Tehachapi who is
recovering from surgery after being shot three times. To the several other Kern
County residents who were wounded or killed. And to the young Bakersfield woman
and her family who’d planned to stay until Monday but, on the spur of the
moment, decided to leave Sunday.
I feel for these folks and their families. I'm angry and saddened they've had to endure this trauma.
I’ve observed that change is most likely to occur when there
is a personal connection to an issue, a person, or a problem. The rapid news
cycle, television, social media, and travel connect us to events, people, and
places and put them with us and within us forever. We are all connected.
The Las Vegas shooter’s amassing of the types and amount of
weaponry we’ve seen went far beyond what the Founding Fathers meant when they
instituted the 2nd Amendment.
They could not have envisioned what’s taking place in our country today.
I sure didn’t.
If you’ve been wondering what you can do to help stop the
carnage, please consider contacting your Congress persons and making your voice
heard. If “this is not the right time," I don’t know when the right time will
be.
~ xoA ~
