It’s three days since the killing of 19 children and two teachers in their classroom in Uvalde, TX.
It’s happened again. Another mass shooting. Another mass shooting. Another mass shooting.
Our minds and hearts can’t process the tragedies fast enough before the next one hits. The leaders of the country offer their empty thoughts and prayers and America plods ahead giving the thumbs up for more tragedies to occur.
At the very core of all of this is the political party that continues to act against the will of the people. Actively creating policy that undermines our health, our earth, our children, our future, and our children’s future. Actively thinking up ways to keep the populace dumb, poor, in debt, and sick. Actively fanning the flames of hate and intolerance. Their sickness is so pervasive I believe it’s no longer even recognizable to them.
Yesterday, Mitch McConnell et al announced they won’t get behind a bipartisan domestic terrorism bill because there was too much focus on white supremacists and Neo-Nazis (who are the most dangerous faction in America currently) and not enough on left-wing groups. White supremacists and Neo-Nazis are created in their image. They are willing to let these “fine citizens” carry out their work so why would they want to suppress that? Why would they want to quash a movement with misogyny at its core? If the citizens are doing the work for them, how nice that they themselves don’t have to get dirty. When they’re not busy obstructing meaningful measures to keep young children safe, they’re crafting oppressive legislation and experimenting with the deputization of citizenry against those who refuse to be objects of their sadism.
This is domestic terrorism and the Republican Party is complicit in it.
We’re watching community after community suffer unbelievable tragedy from gun violence and racism, even their loved ones are perishing from the trauma. We wait for the next shooting, the next hateful policy, the next deflection. They throw their hands up and cry “mental illness!” yet never support policies that foster mental health.
Mental health is knowing your child can go to school, or you can go to a grocery store, or a nightclub, or not be harassed for being black or a person of color or trans or gay. Mental health is knowing your drinking water is clean because leaders are working hard to protect our environment against the bottomless greed of corporate interests. Mental health is when you can maintain a civility around people who are different then yourself and not go to pieces. THAT’s mental health. And if they believed it, they would act on behalf of it. But instead, the perpetual madness machine keeps grinding.
Who is keeping their foot on the necks of the people and pumping their brains full of hate and intolerance?
Who opposes the clear-eyed education of our complex past so that we may come out of it a more united nation?
Who wants to impose forced birth on the population?
They traffic in division because that keeps the populace in shock, angry, complacent, and despondent. They benefit from us fighting amongst ourselves to keep from acknowledging the real enemy.
This cannot go on.
We have too much potential. We are too creative. We are beings of love at our core. THAT’S the healthy society I believe in. Their unending hunger for money and power is ENTIRELY dependent upon us being a complacent and ignorant public.
I don’t think this period of struggle will last forever, but I think it may last for a very long time. It will probably get worse before it gets better, but we can’t lose hope. Because I truly believe it will get better. We have to think about it as a long game. Just as they have for decades. Get healthy in your mind and body. Steady your thoughts. Resist despondency. Be love, spread love, and wake the people up around you with your light. That’s how we help our brothers and sisters remember that this is not normal. Don’t let them forget. Don’t let them trick us into thinking we are powerless. We have so much potential. There is too much good.
Don’t let the terrorists win.