SAFE? THINK AGAIN

     And so life goes on: get up, prepare for the day, get to work, work for the day, go home, do some errands, watch a bit of TV, go to sleep and repeat. Until....BOOM!!! Suddenly life is not what is was, or life is not at all. Suddenly our safe boring days of rut and routine become times of peril and uncertainty, of pain and anguish.
     Why is this? Because the level of violence in this country has risen astronomically. People, for whatever warped reason, have been kiling each other literally since the beginning of time. However, we thought, I believe, that we were living in more 'civilized' times and random killings were no more, certainly not mass killings by ordinary people! Yet, that is what we have. 
     We think that wars are to be fought in a structured and humane manner, with rules of engagement to insure non combatant harm, but truly, does anyone think that works? It is an oxymoron to think that war can be civilized. The very concept of war is not! If you believe that the 'big' wars fought by powerful nations or their proxy wars are more controlled and 'safer', well, look and think again, and then go to the smaller wars around the world and look in, just a peek, at the savagery that goes on.
     Even more egregious, look at the violence we have here, right in the good old USA. We are not alone in this, but all I, we, can do, is clean up our nation before we can point fingers at others. And so every day we open the paper, turn on the TV or radio or internet and are horrified again. Yet another club mass murder. Another concert. Another festival aimed at families. Another car driver gone loony, murderously. Another crazed worker shooting up his former colleagues. A disgruntled student, perhaps bullied in life, goes after all those he feels are complicit in this, never mind reality.
     The blood! The body parts strewn over the area. The anguished and heartbroken cries of anxious parents and the heartrending cry of the parent or family of the perpetrator out of disbelief and horror. So many lives torn apart.
     Mothers fathers sons daughters friends colleagues strangers the guy down the street classmates the little old lady down the block the delivery guy that kid who keeps running into your backyard the pets of the slain - and you. Violence spares no one. It has no mercy. It has no love. It only has hate behind it. And, no, contrary to the opinion of a violence inciter living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., these are committed not by the "murderers" from across the border, but are homegrown, spouters of the same language of hate that he spouts, misogynists asnd racists all. Joined in by others from Capitol Hill and we have a truly poisonous atmosphere
     Why have we not stopped this? Simple. We refuse to enact gun laws. We refuse to recognize that our right to hold and own guns is not in danger with laws. It only restricts those who should not have one in their possession due to mental disease, especially untreated, domestic abusers, troubled students, crazed online haters who post threats, and why the hell should anyone not in law enforcement or the military possess an assault rifle anyway!!???
     But we cave to the NRA. We cave to the haters. We cave for Trump who threatens all who oppose him. We allow a crazed man who needs immediate and strong and intensive help to determine our fates, and then perhaps he bothers, after the horror, to send a ridiculous tweet, with barely a word of comfort, so overwhelmed is that tweet with words of violence and hatred, with name calling, with pursuit of his own interests. Others fail to call out the haters to be found within our government. Thus, we have the vile haters and murderers crawling out of the woodwork, enabled by the politically accepted words of hate and even the praise for it. Chanting these words of hate, thinking they are okay because hello, the President says them, because the President uses bully words - so hey, why not? Why punish the students for learning from a warped teacher?
     But we must learn and soon. Yesterday would be even better. Gun control. Help for the disturbed. Programs to punsish and then reform abusers. Shaming of those who are in the public eye when they use bully tactics to make some awful and inciteful point. Or inject their hatred into society.
     You think you are safe? No, you are not, for violence seems to be finding all the weak spots of our lives. A man sitting on the steps of a Young Israel synagogue in Miami is shot by a driveby gunner. Guess not enough Jews were killed this past year. Festivals are terrorized as people now know to shout "active shooter" and grab their kids and duck and run and howl with fear and anger, with trying to understand how this is happening here, in America, in the year 2019.
     Words.....> violent words....> threats of deeds....>deeds of hate and violence......>physical violence against individuals and groups......>random attacks.....>planned attacks.....>individuals and then groups......>and then.....repetitions of what has gone before? Dear Lord, may we please try to avoid that. If only we would police our mouths. If only we would self police our online statements. If only we would police our faulty and flawed public personalities. If only we would get rid of this awful hate for others. If only we get rid of the attitude that allows over 400,000 enslaved people here, right in the USA, all 'other' so no problem, hey! If only, so many onlies. Start with the guns. Do something. Demand someting. Your life and the lives of others, strangers and loved ones are at stake. Safe? Think again.