From early yesterday morning, when I first read of the Vegas massacre thru this morning, as I watched the toll climb and the identification of more and more of the dead, the hopelessness grew. Again and again we have had mass shootings here, around 270 this year alone and no, these were not all perpetrated by some crazed terrorist, but by many seemingly normal people who then turned out to have had mental issues yet were able to get their weapons of death. Yesterday's shooter was able to buy rifle after rifle and even have an AK 47 or similar weapon, a weapon of war used on unarmed and unaware civilians as they stood in a shooting box, like sheep to the slaughter. No real place to run, to hide, to save friends and loved ones, to save oneself - nowhere to escape the criminally negligent thinking of those in Congress who refuse to put in place a strict gun control situation.
How many more times is Gifford going to have to speak of her own terror, of her hard work to get back to a new normal? How many more times will the parents of little ones need to be reminded of their never ending pain as more people are shot? How many more orphans are we going to create all because the legislators have no courage to stand up to their base and say no more! Yes, you can have a rifle for hunting - if you pass a check, but you certainly do not need a mass of them nor are you allowed to have an assault weapon.
It almost does not matter why this man became a mass murderer, be it mental illness, worries of his own making, radical ideas, left, right or terrorist, for the result is the same - more death and no action to prevent it again.
Trump did not mention one word about gun control nor did most Republicans. Has that party become the party that supports hatred and violence? Poor Lincoln must be watching from above and wondering what happened to his party, their ideals. And the people who think and feel are standing there with a hopeless wonder. What has happened to this nation and its citizens?
So what can be done? Well, lowering the flag to half mast does nothing. Sorry to say that, but it is the truth. It begins to lose its meaning after a while and nothing happens to stop future incidents as a result of the lowering. Talking of the pain, of its evilness does nothing unless followed by action. But legislators are afraid of the NRA who apparently think not so much of the dead who stand there looking at them from hollow eyes. Nope, they got their rifles. They got their assault weapons to assault what? The deer? The ducks? Or the people? And yet they wish to add more to this armory of death by allowing further expansion of the types of ammo allowed, the easier to kill people, and to allow silencers, I guess so the victims will have less warning time as the muted sounds of murder frighten fewer targets. Now isn't that special!!
And in the midst of all this we have the ever growing show of lack of morals and ethics in our government as is presently constituted. Yet another email address for Ivanka and Jared who never belonged in the White House to begin with. Yet more proof of contact between the Trump campaign and the Russians and more talk of business, the ever present goal of Trump, that and profits and to hell with principle and values. Over 10 million people exposed to ads placed by Russian (government) all the better to stir up trouble, racial divides and defeat Hillary. So how many times the thirty pieces of silver did Facebook rake in? Were there any people thinking that this was wrong? Or is it that we have come to only value money, money.
And added to that we have the proposed welfare bill for the wealthy, the one that will add 2.4 trillion dollars to the deficit and double and triple that over a period of a few more years even as the ultra wealthy rake in increased savings, ever more money so they can buy their fifth and sixth houses!! And as for the middle class - well, too bad, let them eat cake, I guess, if they have less money to buy bread.
And let us not forget the people of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the American citizens we have neglected and ignored in their moment of crisis - no, their days and weeks, and months to be, if we do not get moving on this. Trump seems to have his typical bigotry going nicely as he warns and chides these brown people that they should have paid their bills, as he considers their agony of no food, no water, no gasoline, no outside contact, the months ahead of them, the agony of families still awaiting contact with loved ones, the houses that will need to be rebuilt, the roads of the mountains that will need reconstruction, the bridges down and the list goes on. And do not forget those dying because they have no access to medicine and no place to refrigerate that which requires it. Furthermore, I guess we should remind Trump, he who always needs to bring in our soldiers, that many of these "brown" people served in Afghanistan, in Desert Storm, in the Korean War, in Iraq, wherever our soldiers were sent. Remember that in your visit to the island today. See the agony of those outside the city and stop picking on those who remind you of your duty as President of this nation of all people that you have divided so. Remember that call for unity that you sent out yesterday. Stand by these words and do not fail us yet again.
I am not optimistic about the outcome. There will be yet again a deadly silence about gun control as the NRA sends out its blustery pronouncements. There will be a mass forgetting of yet again another tragedy as its victims have to deal with their outcomes for years. And the President will fail us, disappoint us yet again.The people of the islands will continue to struggle after the spotlight is off. And we will remain confused, shocked and in despair, hopeless that there will actually be a change and wondering when and how we can stop all this murder, mayhem and indifference from the powers that be. First step - vote out those who are deaf to the needs of the people and vote in those of courage and values.
Without that first step, we all may as well buy Kevlar vests and metal hats.
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