Insanity

Everyone knows the definition of insanity.

Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.

America is insane.

At least once a week I get a news notification on my phone about another mass shooting somewhere in America...yet nothing changes.  There have been 74 school shootings JUST THIS YEAR, and if you're keeping track it's only June.  That's 74 incidents in six months.  We shake our heads, wipe the tears of our mourning (unless you're Joe Plumber) and keep everything else in place.  After all, what is America about without the Second Amendment?

Well, we aren't about being first in Education.  That's for sure.  Because if we were we would know enough to read the Second Amendment within the context of the time of which is was written (much as the Bible has been neglected out of context but that is another post for another time).  Redcoats, Revolution...anyone?  No one is taking away your right to have a gun but everyone is wondering why nothing has changed in regard to how they are obtained and where the line of absolution is drawn in the wake of a tragedy.

Something HAS to give.  There are double locks on the doors at my child's school.  I have to be buzzed in to see her at lunch.  No, there is nothing wrong with added safety but what happens when the threat is already inside the school with her?  We live in Texas so I would venture to say that the vast majority of the children at her school are in homes where more than one gun is owned.  Should I send her to school armed with one of these bullet resistant blankets and hope I'm able to pick her up alive?

This image is heartbreaking.  This idea that we must teach our kids to protect themselves from an active shooter so that Joe Plumber can avoid change.  It's pure torture that a parent must consider these alternatives in today's world ALL because people are so worried about their entitlement being removed.  I'm so sorry to inform you that my child is also entitled.  She's entitled to a childhood.  A childhood where her only fear should be of the shadows in her closet and NOT the ticker on the news.  I should not have to answer questions about kids her age dying because someone took their mother's guns and showed up on campus that day.  I should not have to leave Target because some nut job thinks it's his right to show up with an assault rifle and expect me and my kids to get over it.  Who's to say HE isn't the next Elliot Roger?

Changes can and have been made in other countries after these events happen and the statistical changes in those countries should be enough to instigate a thorough investigation into what we can do to prevent any further loss of life.

Australia
The U.K.
Canada & Japan

Contrary to popular political beliefs (especially in the South), Obama has a terrible record on gun control.  As a matter of fact, our political biases and our inability as a nation to come together on anything has most likely made the situation worse.  But, no, we're too busy concerning ourselves with what goes on in the bedrooms of homosexuals than we are protecting our children from clear and present danger.  You can't change others but you can certainly change legislation to prevent kids from dying.  I'd say that something worth looking into.

What do we do?  If you're a parent, what would you do?  I certainly don't want to homeschool my child.  I don't want to feed the fear monster that lives at the bottom of my television screen.  Yes, bad guys are going to get guns no matter how strictly regulated but shouldn't we do what we can to slow the tidal wave?

Keep your guns.  By all means, that is one of the foundations of our freedoms.  But let's consider some alternatives to helping keep others safe from those who intend harm.  Is that too much to ask  I'm sure the parents of Allison Wyatt wouldn't think so.

And the family of Rachel D'Avino wouldn't complain.

Place your child's image in this thread.  Or your spouse.  Consider how you would feel if they were gone because a registered gun owner went nuts one day.  Would you tell me that you would say, "Well, they obtained it legally so I guess it's okay by me."

I highly doubt that would be your answer.

A decree

I’m having writer’s block. Don't worry, I'm not going to go all Margaret Cho and try to alleviate my writer's block by claiming my nether regions are haunted (disgusting really). I usually write a lot but when I have an outlet, someone to talk to, these things don’t come as easily. I did sit down the other night to just freely write whatever popped into my head and I love doing that because it’s then, out of nowhere, that these thoughts and words come out that I didn’t know were hiding in the old noggin.

Every once in a while, it’s good to just let every fear, every anxiety, come out through the pen. I don’t like to use the keyboard when I do this kind of writing just good old-fashioned pen to paper because it seems so fundamental, so natural, that way. I’ve noticed, too, that I really only write when I am feeling overwhelmed by a circumstance or I am trying to analyze a situation (which I do a whole lot of). I don’t really write much when things are going well.

Writing for me is a lot like praying. A lot of us only pray when everything seems to be going wrong and we forget God when things are going well. I am so guilty of this, especially as of late. Things have been going really well for me and I’m not leaning on Him as much as I usually do. That’s not a good thing and I must say I’m not proud of it. So I’m issuing a decree. . .it’s a personal one, obviously, but I am going to start focusing on God again. Things always make so much more sense when I am where I’m supposed to be. It’s faith that has gotten me through so many things and made me a conqueror of circumstances that I could have never stood through on my own. If I don’t build on that foundation now, when things are awesome, then I’ll have nothing to stand on when things fall apart, which they will because that is the cycle of life.

I ain't crazy!

I have started to psycho analyze myself which is never a good thing. For reasons that I can never fully explain to anyone, I have been having some anxiety attacks and they really aren't that pretty. What's odd is that I have been removed from the situation that has sparked these reactions for several months. I suppose it is the added stress of going back to school, being a single parent (with a lot of support from family and friends), major changes at work and cultivating a new romantic relationship (which should take a lot of work but oddly enough, it really has come entirely too easy).

While a lot of this is good stress, it is still hard to understand why I have reacted in such a way to certain things. I realize that no harm could have come to me in those instances but I still had an unexplainable panic. I suppose it was the inability to control the situation. You become helpless and you freeze.

It helps that someone very close to me has an anxiety disorder and can completely understand. Although mine has just reared it's ugly head, his has been ongoing for several years and has hindered him from fully enjoying life. Things he was once able to do, he can no longer participate in for fear of having an attack. While I hope that his gets better, I'm praying that mine doesn't become a full blown anxiety disorder. I suppose the only thing for me to do is continue to lean on God and rely on faith that He will see us both through.