Guns and roses...

World Trade Center, 1993...Oklahoma City, 1995...Columbine, 1999...9/11 2001...Sandy Hook, 2012...and last week, Parkland...Valentine's Day...Ash Wednesday...literally, ashes to ashes...this blog is not a line in the sand...that has been drawn most eloquently by hollow-eyed teenagers bloodily thrust into adulthood in Florida last week...this blog is more a reflection and genuine pause in despair...how does this country overcome our collective PTSD inflicted by tragedy after tragedy?...because all responses...the ones I carry deep in my heart on one side...and the ones I often cannot fathom on the other...are both generated by a deep sense of fear and rage and hopelessness...for every technological advance since that first WTC attack, we have regressed as a people...technological advances have slowly but surely erased genuine human interaction...so, we use generalized terms...our mission du jour is to eradicate bullying...you do realize as each of you reads this...perhaps from my Facebook post...that for all of you with children in school, or who have graduated out...while some of you may have witnessed the cruelty of bullying in the new social media age...your children, or relatives...some of you have also been parents to the bully...it's statistics...I've watched school districts pat themselves on the back for their bullying programs and assemblies...yet, I know how they mishandled and backed off from putting teeth into platitudes for years...we do not really appreciate, nor do we want to, the deteriorating mental health of our youth...we do not understand the depth of hurt to be hung out to dry on social media platforms...we can't if we did not grow up with it...if we are not part of generation "thunder thumb"...but we do despair of it...so how do we move forward?....disarming the dangerous is a no-brainer...at least in my brain...I don't want to take away your gun...but current laws and restrictions are not working and it's time for Washington to roll up it's shirt sleeves and work quickly...and then...and then...Parkland...we really need to look how this young man got so far-gone...how each arm of the adult community failed him...this is painful...this is not easy...it's time to put the phones down a little...to realize that the most perfect rose has thorns...and get to work...