Reflections

Some days, we just have to take a step back.

Today. I finished Sons of Anarchy.

But, as I glanced down at my phone, feeling kind of lost and unsettled, I saw that it happened again.

Today, a Madden Tournament. Friday, a school shooting that never even made the news.

We don't ever really get answers. We don't get closure. Some people get angry all over social media, but that's all.

You know what we get? We get videos. We all get to experience it almost as if we were there. But, we sit. We stare. We're in shock. But we're so separated from it. We are desensitized from everything around us.

Looking back, I remember being little and carefree.

I remember standing in front of our old TV in my living room. Dad had just left for work. We just stood there and the plane hit the second tower.

People didn't talk about it. People didn't know what to say.

I don't like flying.

I remember hearing the news break. Sandy Hook. It was in the news, but no one talked about it.

Months prior, a movie theater.

I don't really go to movies much.

Six years later, and we hear the news relay new information about a new shooting and new mass bombing attempt.

Sometimes its kids. Sometimes its deranged adults.

Another celebrity kills themselves. Another checks into rehab.

A week or so will go by, and then the news moves on. People move on.

We are so conditioned to move on.

This isn't politics. This is the human condition. People have a problem.

Now, I get it. This blog isn't about all of this. But it is about who we are as people. Not people of one party or another. But people.

People who somehow can't wrap their head around the fact that these shooters have mental health issues. Mental health, however, isn't an excuse that should prevent a criminal prosecution.

But aren't we the same people who stood behind 13 Reasons Why and started advocating for mental health awareness? Didn't we recognize how poor mental health can drive people to do crazy things?

It was talked about and talked about and talked about. Until someone spoke out asking for a "trigger warning"...

Then you were offended.

These issues. They need to be addressed.

The disabled community is excluded from "active shooter drills" in schools. Those with mental conditions are shoved right back where you think they belong when their issues are brought to light in a way that only further sabotages the community.

This country doesn't need thoughts and prayers. Just like I don't need them.

This country needs empathy.

This country needs action.

Not tweets. Not protests.

We need informed citizens. We need news outlets that will do the informing without bias. We need therapists that don't cost an arm and a leg and we need them in our schools, in our places of work, everywhere.

We need to have real conversations. We need to lay out real plans.

The one sided yelling and accusations aren't working.

We need to stop coming from a place of anger. We need to get back the part of us that allows us to be sensitive and to feel the emotions we've all come to just brush aside.

People can't wrap their heads around invisible conditions. People can't wrap their heads around crazy, murderous individuals either.

I hate to say it. But the reasons why are the same.

A.