All Life. Every Life. We are all born as molecules in the hearts of a billion stars. Molecules that do not understand politics or policies or differences. Over a billion years, we foolish molecules forget who we are and where we came from. In desperate acts of ego, we give ourselves names, fight over lines on maps, and pretend that our light is better than everyone else’s. The flame reminds us of the piece of those stars that lives on inside us. The spark that tells us: “You should know better.” The flame also reminds us that life is precious as each flame is unique. When it goes out, it’s gone forever. And there will never be another quite like it. So many candles will go out tonight. I wonder some days if we can see anything at all.
Delenn on the meaning of the lit candle, “Babylon 5” – “And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder”
By now, news of yet another mass shooting is dominating the airwaves on the news broadcasts and other media outlets and I’ve no doubt that before all of the chest beating and clutching of pearls is done, we’ll find ourselves staring down the barrel of another atrocity where lives are lost unnecessarily at the hands of a criminal who decided today was their day to die.
Truth be told, I didn’t even know this latest spasm of senseless violence was taking place about two miles away from my front doorstep here in East Raleigh until Julia texted me asking if we were OK.
First and foremost, the kids and I are all safe and were never in any danger. Katie, Alex, and I had gotten back to the house about a hour before it all went down and Nicholas pulled into the driveway right at the same time Raleigh PD was starting to swarm the area north of us.
Katie was working on her homework and Alex was upstairs and I was catching up on a night of not really getting much sleep until the rain started at 0330 (which worked a treat…the sound of the rain is so relaxing that the next thing I hear is the phone’s alarm going off way too bloody early in the morning about two and a half hours later!
RPD has apprehended the suspect but the damage was well and truly done…five dead and two injured with one of those injured fighting for their life at WakeMed.
I’ve already seen enough hot-takes over the past couple of hours. The “thoughts and prayers” brigades are out in force as well as those decrying any sort of debate or regulation of firearms as being utterly repugnant to their twisted interpretation of the sacred Second Amendment and heaven help those who try to interject anything approaching facts and truth into the conversation.
And in all of the wailing and screaming, the five lives whose candles were snuffed out prematurely are almost an afterthought.
Five families now having to confront the reality that their loved one is no longer with them and left with so many questions starting with the most horrific one of all: WHY?
At some point, we as a society have to come to grips with the fact that we tolerate these senseless deaths because we’ve become numb to them.
Another day, another mass shooting, and millions of dollars pouring into paying for the advertising and endless coverage and glorification of the event.
One story pegged the number of mass casualty events this year alone at 531 and we’ve still got two and a half months to go.
And yes, there is no one easy answer to solving this complex problem. It will take addressing the utterly deficient availability of mental health resources and figuring out some measure of common sense regulations to at least make it harder for those who really should not have guns to get them.
There will be the naysayers and nabobs who will point out that gun regulation doesn’t stop a determined criminal from getting a gun or a lone-wolf actor from using one. And they’re right as long as the Second Amendment is treated as some sort of buffet for the ammosexuals to have enough weapons to take over a third-world country rather than recognised as the Founding Fathers trying to have a mechanism for a ready militia should the country be invaded in a time where a gun was primarily a tool for feeding your family and defending yourself against being attacked by the natives who were not thrilled at being displaced and screwed by invading settlers.
Maybe the answer is to forget about regulating guns. Let the weekend Rambo-wannabees have as many guns as they want but make possessing or manufacturing the ammunition unless properly licenced and taxed a felony punishable by very stiff penalties and mandatory jail sentences.
There’s no one answer to the problem and certainly no easy ones to be found. And as long as we’re a hyper-polarised and divided society politically, finding common-sense solutions to try to address the problem is unlikely at best when you have lobbying groups that have bought the half of Congress worth buying to prevent any threats to their goal of selling more guns and profiting off of our culture of glorified death.
Perhaps we might waken from our madness and finally say “enough is enough”.
Then again with our current political environment, perhaps I’ve got a better chance of seeing the Earth stop orbiting round the sun before I see something done to address the ever increasing body count.
Until then, I truly feel for the families of those who have perished not too far from here a few hours ago. I wish there was something I could say that would ease your pain and grieve that your loved ones were taken by the senseless and foolish act of the person who murdered them who by some accounts is a juvenile male who was wielding a shotgun. I would love to say that maybe they will be the catalyst for meaningful change but I’m sure you’d know that it is unlikely at best.
What I can offer is hope that in the coming days and months that you will find some measure of solace and peace in the empty spaces where you will now have to walk that even though your loved ones are no longer here, they are at least in a better place.
And then hope despite reason and evidence to the contrary that we won’t have to mourn more of us whose light are lost unnecessarily and before their time. 🙁