Q is for Quit

Don’t you sometimes just want to throw up your arms in the air and say “I quit” in response to seeing yet another idiotic statement. I know I do.  I read stupid comments or stories about why gay people shouldn’t be allowed to get married, why we shouldn’t regulate gun purchases, why students are told stupid, non-scientific statements about birth control, or at any number of conspiracies surrounding the Newtown shootings or stupid jokes about banning bombs or pressure cookers. I can’t tell you how fed up I am at all of this.

For marriage equality – and that is what it is, an equality issue – I guess I just don’t get it. How does another couple’s marriage hurt you in any way. Maybe if we promoted more love in this world then we wouldn’t have the violence that we have.  This is an equal rights issue. If two consenting adults want to get married, why shouldn’t they be able to? The statement that we shouldn’t redefine marriage bothers me a great deal considering marriage has evolved quite a bit over the centuries.

For the gun control issues –  I was looking at my Facebook feed today and saw this posted by a family member.

Below that another family member says in response “You will soon need a permit to purchase a pressure cooker.”

UGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

First – I feel the need to point out that the misspelled “miss spell” – on purpose or not?

Second, someone please tell me what is wrong with background checks? From what I hear, 90% of Americans agree that background checks are acceptable and could potentially stop some incidents from happening. If that even has the slightest potential of being true, shouldn’t we do so? I am so angry with the Senate right now for voting down something that a very clear majority of Americans approve of.

After all we have seat belt laws because it can potentially save lives though it doesn’t always. We regulate the food industry so not everyone has food poisoning but sometimes people do  We require people to go the speed limit to prevent deaths though people routinely don’t follow that one.  I could think of many other examples. The same could be said of background checks. It isn’t perfect but it could help.

The difference between pencils, cars, spoons versus guns is that the purpose of the first three is not to kill, but to write, drive, and eat respectively. Guns ONLY purpose is to kill. This is why this whole guns don’t kill people, people do argument drives me crazy.

And the joke that pressure cookers will need a permit or that bombs will be banned (as I’ve seen another say) is aggravating.  The government does regulate explosives. Just like the above, it may not stop everything but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have those regulations.

For the students that were told that if you use birth control that your parents hate you. I am just speechless on that news story.

And finally, my thoughts and prayers are sent out to the people of West, Texas who suffered a horrible tragedy on Wednesday. This plant had some violations recently too.

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N is for Not Again and O is for Outlandish

As predicted, I am a bit behind in my posts.

I thought I would put these posts together as they go together in my head.

We have all heard the horrible news about the bombings in Boston at the Boston Marathon. My first reaction was – who does something like this? Why would someone think this was an answer to their problems? Then I heard about the death of an 8-year-old. All of the deaths are horrible, but it just hurts that much more when a child is killed. What did any of those people there do to you? I never get that. The people were there for a celebratory event – they didn’t do anything to provoke this type of hatred.

The N is Not Again because please not again do we have to deal with this type of event. I remember the morning of 9/11 clearly. I remember hearing about the Newtown shootings all too clearly – in fact, that event is always on my mind with my twins being around the same age as the children that were killed so maliciously. I don’t know anybody personally that were hurt doing any of these events but I feel them deeply and I hurt for those who lost someone. I hurt for the children as the moment they left this earth had to be the scariest moment of their lives – of anyone’s lives really. I cannot possibly imagine what it is like to lose a child. I hope I never have to find that out. I don’t understand this world. Sure, I get annoyed at drivers and politicians and co-workers and friends and family members and any number of things, but I certainly wouldn’t do anything purposefully to harm another. No matter how much I may disagree with them.

Then we come to “O” for Outlandish. First, I hear the question asked of Governor Patrick of MA at the news conference the other day asking “Why were the loudspeakers telling people in the audience to be calm moments before the bombs went off? Is this another false flag staged attack to take our civil liberties and promote homeland security while sticking their hands down our pants on the streets?” Wow, really? I don’t get people. Even if the government wanted to take our civil liberties away, I don’t believe for a second that they would kill and maim innocent people just for showing up to a race. People are certainly crazy as evidenced by people sharing conspiracy videos and pictures on Facebook showing the principal of the Newtown school also being killed in Boston (instead of it being human error, it’s a conspiracy!) or videos showing Facebook pages set up before the event offering thoughts and prayers to the victims. I believe on Snopes somewhere they addressed this very issue after the Newtown massacre. People can manipulate dates on things easily.

 

Second, I hear the statement/joke about “oh, we better ban bombs now. oh wait” as a comeback from the people who think the government want to ban guns. The government doesn’t want to ban guns – maybe assault rifles because who seriously needs one of those – but that’s all. They want to be able to regulate the gun laws already on the books that the NRA had somehow got politicians to add items to other bills to make it difficult to do so and they want background checks. What is wrong with that? They say that people will continue to be hurt by guns so why bother with any laws, but these laws could potentially prevent some events so shouldn’t we at least try? What is wrong with trying? We tell people to wear their seat belt not because it will save everyone, but because it could potentially save a good number of people. We tell people to drive the speed limit for the same reason. It may not prevent every incident out there, but if it could, I think we should try.

(Note – the above was written in a really hasty, rushed way so it isn’t as coherent as I would like it to be. If I had more time, I’d actually research things a bit more.)

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Extreme Sadness

So many others have already written about this. What else is there to say? Between the events at Sandy Hook and my mom learning her cancer has spread to her liver, it just hasn’t felt like I should celebrate anything. I haven’t been sleeping well. I have 3 children – Benjamin and Ella are 5 and started kindergarten this fall. Nicholas is 3 and will turn 4 in February. I can’t say how glad I am right now that they are off for Christmas break. We shouldn’t have to live in such fear that it could happen to us. I didn’t lose a child last Friday but my heart is heavy and aches for those that did. I want to take the pain away from them and have this event not happen.  This is a pain that I never want to experience – a pain I never want anyone to experience. There is not a moment in the day when I don’t think about the tragedy.

I am going to do something. I am going to do whatever it takes to try to help this doesn’t happen again – whether it is joining a group who works toward gun control or sending letters or making phone calls to my Senators and Representatives. I feel I need to do something. All of these shootings need to stop – it particularly needs to stop hurting innocent children in a place that should be so safe – their school. I know that we need to fix our mental health care in this country – that this is part of the problem as well. I don’t even know where to begin to solve that part of the problem.

I want everyone to not live in fear that they will be killed once they leave their door at the hands of someone who means them harm for no good reason at all.

I am also striving to be a better person – to treat others how I would like to be treated – love your neighbor as yourself. That means a lot of things to me and it is something that I need to continually work on.

I am also very angry that we have gotten to this point – that there are all these shootings. Why is the U.S. so far ahead in a lot of other countries when it comes to gun deaths? We just love the gun so much that someone who loves his gun is more important than a child’s life? I do hope that we can make some commonsense changes and that the NRA won’t fight it and that the  people who love their guns would realize we aren’t taking away the right to have a gun, but to have the ability to buy a gun no one would need for self-defense or to hunt.

To those who have sad it was because God isn’t in the schools. As a Christian, I really, really take issue with that. Steve McSwain, a former Baptist minister, said it best…

“With such remarks, you not only show little regard for those broken by this tragedy, but you make God into some kind a cosmic psychopath — vengeful, sickeningly repulsive, one who takes out his madness on innocent little children.”

“Your reasoning is repulsive: Because we have removed your god from our schools, this is how your god gets even?”

That is exactly how I feel.

I hope one day that the heaviness in my heart eases. I just can’t handle it. I woke in a panic the other night that something had happened to my kids that I had to go check on them. I can’t imagine what those who lost a loved one is feeling right now. A school, a movie theater, a mall or a church, should be a place of fun, learning, and comfort – not a place of horror, fear and hurt. I pray that this country can come together to try to solve this problem – we have to try – we have to. Just saying that things like this happen – that they are terrible – is not the way this country should be thinking because it isn’t just terrible, it is horrifying.

Please go out and be kind to your neighbor, friends, and complete strangers every day. That will be one step in the right direction. To get you started – here are some ideas – 26 acts of kindness.

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Sweet Story and Video

This is such a sweet story and video…

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Lowering the Drinking Age

Part of my job is to keep up on any legislation involving retail liquor sales. A while ago, I had read that a few states have legislation or initiatives started in order to lower the drinking age for everyone to 18 or just for those in the military (depending on the state).

It seems like 21 is such an arbitrary number (though I just read an article while researching the issue that says part of the reason 21 was chosen was because our brains continue developing until at least that age), so I don’t see a problem to lowering to 18. Plus, like so many have said, if someone can go fight in a war or vote, then why shouldn’t they also be able to legally have a drink? On the other hand, 18 seems too young and well, some 18 year olds – even some 22 year olds- seem a bit immature and maybe adding alcohol to the mix isn’t such a good idea.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the issue?

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News Stories

Two news stories that caught my attention and that I feel compelled to share…

This is just weirding me out. The person looks like a man (was born a woman) and is pregnant.

The crisis of toddlers’ ability to get married in Arkansas is over now. Whew…close call.

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Wedding Cake Idea!

Wow – this person really thinks highly of herself to have a wedding cake modeled after herself. I wonder if I should share this idea with a coworker of mine who became engaged on New Year’s Eve?

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News

There’s a couple news stories that have captured my attention today –

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the murders of 6 people here in WA.

Both stories tell of something awful that happened. Not only did Bhutto die, a woman fighting for democracy, but several others died as well at a rally Bhutto was speaking at.

2 of the people killed in WA were children – now that I have children – hearing things like this just saddens me more than before. I just cannot imagine losing my children. My sister told me about a schoolmate of my niece who was killed by a drunk driver over the weekend. Then I read a story about a little girl who died riding her brand new Christmas bike. I really should stop reading the news – it just depresses me.

With the 6 people murdered in WA, they arrested the daughter of two of the victims and the daughter’s boyfriend. I just don’t understand.

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2008 already?

I was just reading msnbc.com on my lunch break and saw an article that mentions the Iowa presidential primary is only 7 weeks away. What? Oh, I guess 2008 is really that close. It doesn’t seem like it should be.

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