ANGER

You know what surprises me? When you are merging into a traffic lane and the car behind you actually let’s you in. When someone walking down the street actually looks into your eyes and smiles. When someone holds the door open for me. What doesn’t surprise me is that there is another mass murder attempt on a college university, on MY COLLEGE UNIVERSITY! Where I thought for the most part we were all nature loving, pot smoking, hippy people, surely this would never happen on our OUR campus!? Just like everyone had said in places that this had happened before. How despicable is it that I am more surprised by a strangers smile than another mass murder attempt.

I am so angry that this has become so commonplace. And what angers me more is that it is made into some bullshit political agenda. THESE ARE PEOPLE not politics!!!! It is time we STOP casting the blame on political issues: gun control, mental health, and religion vs. politics. What part do YOU play in it?

Yeah, sure, you didn’t buy the gun, or load the bullets, but when was the last time you looked at stranger, or heaven forbid said hi to them? Did you help someone when they were suffering? Did you help the man in front of you at the grocery struggling to count his change? Don’t just buy a latte for the person in the car behind you, let’s be honest here- if someone is in line for a latte they probably aren’t suffering too much, think bigger! When was the last time you helped a single mom who was fighting to raise her kids without a father figure? When was the last time you looked judgingly at a mom in a grocery store aisle whose child was unruly?

That person you could say hi to might be struggling feeling like they are invisible. The man in the grocery store could have just lost his job and used his last paycheck to keep a roof over his head. That single mom could be dealing with her son’s drug addiction and dad has left or passed away. That mom could be a nurse who just got off a 12 hour shift and the only time she can get to the grocery store is during nap time! Every ONE has a story, and SHAME ON YOU if you judge them without the opportunity to hear theirs.

When was the last time you yelled impatiently at your kids in the grocery store? When was the last time you flipped someone off in your car with your kid in the backseat? Have YOU ever treated anyone disrespectfully?

I would hope you want your child to grow up to practice patience, kindness, self control and yet these are the very things we lack within ourselves. Who knows what could have made the difference in these school shootings, but I guarantee we are not going to find the answer in politics. We will find it when we start taking accountability for our own actions in how we treat the people around us. Society is made up of individuals, and if we are unhappy with society we should be just as equally unhappy when we look at ourselves.

It take a village to raise a child. And that is true more now today than possibly it has ever been. We desperately NEED good role models for our children. They cannot find them within the violent video games and they definitely cannot find them within our primetime television shows that used to contain messages of values and morality. Now it’s all about dealing with a dysfunctional family, affairs, how to get away with murder, and revenge. These shows place no value in human life, except for that of my own of course. Even the crime television show so much detail it desensitizes us to criminal acts. There is no sense of togetherness. So when someone takes a human life, well, it is just NO.Big. Deal. Well doesn’t that just make your stomach turn? That is what we teach our children. Our societal shift towards solidarity in human interaction is going to be what destroys us.

Turn off the television, unplug your devices (after you read this) and go teach your kids some values! Go serve at a homeless shelter together or buy food for people living on the streets. And don’t assume you know how someone ended up there, that they are somehow less than human because life has thrown them a few too many curve balls! Go think about someone other than yourself for an afternoon and see how it changes you.

Show respect. When did it become okay to deny people respect...? I hate hearing people say they have to EARN it! ********!! A person is worthy of respect simply because they are a PERSON. 

Go have a conversation with someone. Go make someone’s day just by taking an interest. It doesn’t take a lot, because like I said before, it is the anomaly. You would be surprised how your little actions can make a big difference. Show someone you care. What if someone had taken an interest in helping the mother of the boy who committed the Oregon shooting? What if a teacher or friend or neighbor cared to ask his how he was. WHAT IF?

It is too early to know much about the NAU shooter, but he has a story too. A story that told him that whatever these other boys did to him, that he was just in taking their life for whatever reason. What I hope is that we can start being people again. We can start caring about the people around us. That we will teach our kids to recognize when someone is being bullied and that we will equip them with the desire and actions to end that injustice. How would that have made a difference in Columbine?

My heart breaks for Flagstaff and the families involved. My heart is breaking for my friends I went to school with. I am sad we are now apart of that statistic that there were killings on our campus. And unfortunately our prayers are not enough. We need to take action alongside those prayers. We need to practice what we preach and we need to show that LIFE MATTERS. We need to be kind, polite, respectful and practice self-control. It doesn’t begin with the politicians sitting on their ass coming up with new ways to “solve” a problem only to create a new one. IT BEGINS WITH YOU. IT BEGINS WITH ME.

Now, go show someone some kindness, selflessly. Honestly, the best thing that could happen is if you put me out of a job.