Another Mass Shooting?

Like the rest of the country, I’m stunned there’s been another mass shooting. This time in San Bernardino.

I’m so not pro-gun. However, my new theory is fuck gun laws all together. All screenings should be thrown out entirely. Let whoever wants to have a gun, have one. Bring back the Wild West!

Let’s go even further and make it mandatory that everyone must own a gun.

And then let’s throw out all restrictions on where you can carry them. Pack heat wherever you go, be it your job, to the grocery store or your doctor’s office.

Why not?

Clearly fighting against the issue is doing no good. Bad people get guns anyway. I’ve still yet to hear of anyone defending themselves with a gun in a mass shooting situation, but if everyone had one maybe that would change.

Or maybe people would wake up and realize how ridiculous it is that guns are so prevalent in our society and some real action would finally get taken. Because when’s the last time you heard of a gun doing something good? Where are all those stories? If you know of any, I’d sure like to hear them.

It seems we’re getting crazier, meaner, and less inhibited as a society. Why people want to create mass violence against other people is beyond me. Mother Nature wreaks enough havoc by herself.

I’m not just talking hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires, etc. I’m talking that plus cancer, Parkinson’s, MS, cerebral palsy, and all the other debilitating, chronic diseases that can strike a person. That do strike people. Daily. And more ferociously than any terrorists or delusional homicidal psychopath.

The last thing we need is to fight each other. The Universe creates enough hostility as it is.

Or maybe that’s the answer behind the nut jobs who seem to be coming out of the woodwork like never before. They’re a conduit for that dark side of the Universe that lusts for chaos.

All I know is that I’m tired of staring in horror at scenes of tragedy. I’m cursed with an empath’s soul, so it’s very easy to put myself in other people’s shoes and taste the depths of their fear, sorrow, and heartbreak.

I could turn off the TV, ignore the news, and go about my merry life to spare myself the misery. Sometimes I do.

But I can’t turn a blind eye forever.

And I can’t keep my thoughts contained any longer. Writing frees the whirling dervish of emotions swirling in my soul. It feels better to express than repress.

Do I feel better now?

Yes. And no.

I’ve said my peace, but it won’t do any good. It won’t change anything. It’s just more rhetoric.

However, starting tomorrow I’m going to make an even more concerted effort to be as nice as I can to everyone I meet. If I can extend a kindness in any way, shape, or form, I’m going to do it relentlessly.

It’s like the quote I shared in our Christmas card this year: “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” Hamilton Wright Mabie

The world could use a lot more Love Conspiracies right about now. I plan to be an active participant in as many as possible.

Want to join me? Great! Leave comments telling me about them. Maybe it’ll generate some new ways for me to spread more kindness.

Until then, Peace Out. To do so is the only way we’ll bring it about.

And who knows…maybe if these killers in the San Bernardino mass shooting (and all the others) had known more kindness in their lives, they wouldn’t have done this.

I think that goes for a lot of people who do terrible things. Like a brilliant neighbor once told me, “Hurt people, hurt people.”

See why it’s so important to spread love and kindness? It’s more potent than any law we could pass. Fostering goodness perpetrates more of the same. The converse is also true. (Badness begets more badness.)

That’s why I love the “Kindess Matters” mantra.

It does. It really does. And maybe if we start spreading more of it, we can save lives and reclaim our civility.