I hear you, Mamas. I know your pain, your worries, your frustration. I know your fear. And I know you’re tired because I am too. Tired of all the noise, the rhetoric, the enormous piles of bullshit that is flung our way daily. I know how easy it is to turn away from the headlines, ignore the news, snooze alerts, turn everything off including your conscience. It’s easy to lay down and accept the world as is. But we don’t do easy. We’re Mamas. And this is HOME. OUR HOME. I’m just as much of an American as any one else in this country as are my children and we have RIGHTS too. I have a RIGHT to pursue happiness and you know what would make me happy? Knowing my children are SAFE. They have the RIGHT to feel SAFE in the country that is their HOME.
These shooters are broken. There are no “evil” people, the human condition is certainly more complicated than that. There are awful choices and evil acts, but these people are as much my responsibility as my children. We share a country, a HOME. It is hard seeing these individuals as anything but “monsters” because to do so requires us to concede that we humans are capable of horrific crimes. All of us. When we are twisted by hate, anger or revenge and lacking the essential elements for civility like compassion, empathy and love none of us is immune to hopelessness. Not one of us knows what it’s like to be someone else and none of us are our own island.
Recently my family and I went to the movies with our kiddos and later my husband and I admitted to each other that as we entered the theater we noted where all the exits were. We imagined the unthinkable in order to prepare ourselves “just in case”. Is this how we want to LIVE? Is this what we want our HOME to be?
What can we do? MORE. Love MORE. Vote MORE. Care MORE. Fight MORE. We have to DO more. Shut down the politics, this is about PRESERVING LIFE. What we’ve been doing isn’t ENOUGH. We HAVE to do MORE. It will be hard. But we can do HARD. We can do hard for our CHILDREN and for our HOME.
The below organizations are a good place to start to learn how gun violence affects victims and their families and what we can do:
https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/
And for all my gun toting friends out there…if you feel you need a piece of metal to protect you from your fellow human beings have at it. Wallpaper your walls with your rifles and pistols and whatever else you need to feel “safe”. I’m not coming for your guns- most liberals aren’t. But I will FIGHT to protect my CHILDREN and my HOME. So stock up, friends, cause I’m a lot like love…I ALWAYS fucking win.
Bad Adulting 