When There's a Connection

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 2^nd 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 ~

Searching

I didn’t want my next post to be a rant. That is not the style or purpose of The DayMaker.

I’d been searching for what I could say that would be positive. Show compassion. Lead the way. Present a solution or an action. Express my sadness, incredulity, and concern without condemning or vilifying. I didn’t want to fly about helter-skelter then zero in like a missile seeking its target.

So I have been silent.

But too often now, I am swallowing the sickness I feel over the tragedies and losses through gun violence. Too often I am turning away from photos of terrorists, foreign or home-grown. Too often I am appalled by the attacks on people who dare to claim the right to practice their religion or the freedom to make choices that affect their lives. Too often, I am stunned by the words of full-of-themselves politicians and wannabes.

Too much I am wondering how I can NOT let THEM, those outside forces, change ME. So when a coach friend, Karen Tax, posted a quote that spoke to me on Facebook, I knew I had to share it. 

These words were what I’d been searching for.

Written by Iain S. Thomas, 2007, in his blog post, The Fur

For sure, Thomas’s words don’t solve the world problems we face. But they help reinforce to me that I don’t have to become someone I don’t want to be.

What words have inspired you lately? Maybe they will make a bit of brightness for the rest of us, too.

~ xoA ~

Maybe, By Now

 

It was days after Newtown before I could sit down to write. When I did, what evolved became a poem. So I offer it here, along with a hopeful prayer written by Katherine Hafeli Scheler.

                   Maybe, by Now

My heart aches for the people of Newtown.

I shake my head in disbelief.

Another disaster burnt into memory

Forever recalling

Where, when, how

We heard the news

We’ve spent too much time reacting to tragedy

Shed too many tears

Sent too many Teddy bears

Texted too many donations

Prayed too many prayers

For someone’s children lost

For families ravaged

We’ve spent too many hours, days, years

Trying to comprehend.

Columbine.

Virginia Tech.

Tucson.

Aurora.

Oak Creek.

Now Newtown.

Maybe, by now

We do comprehend.

No longer can we bear

To live in fear

Explain the unspeakable

Console each other in grief

Merely talk about change

Maybe, by now

We get it that

Time with loved ones

Real conversations

Genuine caring for

And taking care of

Each other

Doing something

Make the difference.

Maybe, by now

We are ready to

Take notice

Build relationships

Spread love

Take action

Create change

Ready to restore

Childhood’s innocence

Humanity’s  grace.

  December 20, 2012 

"Let today be guided by a fair wind, let us sail on an even keel, and let the hearts of men be overwhelmed with peace as we bear the burdens of our brothers and prepare to do our part in healing the ills of our world."

     ~ Katherine Hafeli Scheler

~ xo A ~