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Prayers to all families of these senseless tragedies...

Started 5 months ago by 365Stairs
Latest reply from JoB

365Stairs
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Sensless Darkness has fallen upon our communities two more times this week...

I can barely write this...as I stare at my kindergartner...who stayed home today...she wonders why her mother and I are hugging her.

Lord...please help those families in desperate need find Your peace in this unimaginable, unthinkable time...they need you more than ever!

Lord...please...please help those who are feeling lost and weakened and driven to perform evil on the defenseless as their final act...please show them that all life is truly valuable...and they would prove nothing to take anothers...

To the rest of us...lay down petty judgements and show good at all opportunity...open your eyes to those around you that may be in need and help...

Posted 5 months ago #
HMC Rich
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Thank You. I share your sentiments. I look at my Kindergartner and wonder what his future will look like.

Posted 5 months ago #
westcoastdeb
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I just cannot breathe. How does this happen? Why?

Those babies.

The adults who died, leaving behind possibly babies of their own.

Something's gotta give.

Stabbing of 22 in china as well, including school kids:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/14/china-knife-attack-school.html

So senseless. So so so senseless.

Posted 5 months ago #
Bostonman
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This is an absolute nightmare for those parents. What would drive someone to do something like this is beyond me and will probably never be understood by anyone.

Posted 5 months ago #
add
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It is so incredibly horrific and I am having a visceral reaction to this story. We MUST get moving on gun control laws, media practices, and support for the mentally ill. We cannot accept this as the "new normal" and that there is nothing we can do to stop these truly senseless acts. I am ready to get out in the streets over this.

Posted 5 months ago #
Bostonman
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There are enough threads on gun control, go bog down one of those threads.

Posted 5 months ago #
funkietoo
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No words to describe this horror and sadness. Sending heartfelt thoughts to all of the children and adults.

Posted 5 months ago #
365Stairs
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Trying to find the strength to attempt to explain Why to my children...because sheltering them is not possible anymore...

Posted 5 months ago #
westcoastdeb
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The caliber of at least one of the guns recovered was a .223, the same as the shell casings recovered at the 7900 block of 12th SW just a few days ago.

Suddenly, the safety bubble is eroded.

Posted 5 months ago #
wakeflood
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We all want an answer to "why?". I can't escape the notion that we, as a society, have for too long stoked the flames of internal distrust for others and fear of, well, almost anything that we don't control.

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to acting out when vulnerable and upset.

It's an inflammation of the mind/soul. A powerful, paranoid meme that pits all of us against each other in sometimes slight and insidious ways.

We seek false sense of security by gathering elements of defensive protection that are just as potent when used offensively when our tenuous threads of sanity snap. Blame creates targets. Defense becomes offense.

How do we calm the inflammation? How do we defuse the meme?

Posted 5 months ago #
hooper1961
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totally senseless. how can anyone take out their anger on kindergartner's.

Posted 5 months ago #
hammerhead
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I can not imagine what you as parents are going threw watching this tragedy unfold, as I do not have children.

As I sit crying and can only imagine what is happening,during what should be a happy time for all.

Prayers to all. Hope it can still be a Merry Christmas.

HH

Posted 5 months ago #
DBP
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>>How do we calm the inflammation? How do we defuse the meme?

–Glad you asked. There are two ways we can do this:

Way 1: We can all try to meditate and reflect and become better people. That way, whenever there's a horrific mass murder involving a gun – and the way things are going we know there will be many more – we can "process" it.

Way 2: We can make guns harder to get. That way there won't be anything to process.

Posted 5 months ago #
DBP
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>>We all want an answer to "why?"

–There are actually two "why's" involved here.

Why 1: Why did this guy go nuts?

The answer to that is, and will probably always be: Unknown

Why 2: Why was this guy able to kill a bunch of people?

In fact, that one is not really a "why" at all, because the answer is already known: Because he had a gun.

Posted 5 months ago #
HMC Rich
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I have been sobbing all morning because I feel the parents grief.

Locally, we should examine very directly with the SPS and other school districts what safety measures can be taken. But that is for tomorrow. Today we need to be with our loved ones and our precious children.

No rational person would do this. This was the act of a complete madman.

It is too early to know and say too much, but please, lets band together in Love and support each other and help where we can.

Posted 5 months ago #
velo_nut
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How about instead of praying, we actually do something about gun control, violence and mental health in this country?

Posted 5 months ago #
365Stairs
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Velonut - as you can imagine...the prayers are to help begin a healing...they add comfort to peoples lives who have just been ripped apart and the national dominoe effect that is...

To your next point...it should be a universal Weapons Control...because it is not just about guns...

Better Control of Mental issues...Eliminating Violent Video Games...Improving Awareness & Vigilence towards violent tendancies / signs of which can easily be masked under "kids being kids" at early stages...Offering overwhelmed parent support...and a host of 1,000 different things to combat evil...and evil doers.

Unknown...yes...always unknown...but strangely...isn't there always that one or two people who come "after the fact"...well...this person started / did this or that interesting act recently...

Actions do speak loudly...

Sweeping weapons control is a start. But this does NOT contain the weapons that exist.
But while on the subject...you CAN begin to control the ammo and make it very difficult to get the bullets...there are(4) pieces to the ammo. Commercially made ready ammo should not be sold without umpteen different security checks...and for self-loaders...you control lead sales, brass case sales, primer, and powder sales at the most strict levels.

You make the places that manufacture and sell these put tracking measures on each box, unit, etc. These places must be the most secure places. Actually...there should be just ONE place for this...that everyone has to go through and be scrutized for asking to buy any component...accessory involving guns...

This will not control what is out there already...or stop thieves.

But it is a start...

Ask people to volunteer their weapons turn in? Successful in some pockets.

Eliminate manufacture of all commercial weapons all together? Likely not in our lifetime.

Too many places to consider...too many out there right now...but yes...start somewhere.

For now...please pray for those families that have been forever changed today...yesterday..because there are people who don't understand the value of a Life that was meant to be lived in peace...and love.

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
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I think that what the president said is important. Today is not a day to talk about laws. Today is a day for grief. I can't imagine anyone who has a heart not being grieved by this. It's a day of talking with, being with, loving your children, and grieving for the families who have lost theirs.

We can talk gun laws tomorrow..

Posted 5 months ago #
goodgraces
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No words, only deep, deep sorrow.

Posted 5 months ago #
wakeflood
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Regardless of which version of the "how we prevent these events" you ascribe to, there are a couple things that should be omnipresent.

1. We can't ignore the issue any longer and pretend we're shocked again next time. These are NOT isolated events. They are inextricably linked to a malady in our society. To deny that is to deny that change can and should happen.

2. We have to be willing to look at the long game. It took us a couple of generations to get this sick, it's going to take at least that many to heal us.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm ashamed as an American that all we have to offer the murdered and their families are prayers and condolences time after time after time...

If that truly is the case, then each President might as well offer a prayer and thoughtful condolences to the future victims at every inaugural. At least the dead will know they were in our thoughts when they were alive.

Madness.

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
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Wakeflood is right

we can't ignore these issues any longer and believe that they will just go away
they won't

the sickness in our political system
is only a mirror of the sickness in our society

however.. i believe we have begun the process of turning this around
we make progress every time we talk with one another

Posted 5 months ago #
miws
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Today we need to grieve.

Tomorrow we need to retain the anger we have today, and use it as a catalyst to attempt to end these senseless, repeated, tragedies....

Mike

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
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i am not willing to risk the life of one more child.
I am not waiting till tomorrow to say that this has to stop now

Posted 5 months ago #
waynster
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When the leader of the free world cries over senseless killings of the very young its time to put an end to this madness ..RIP little ones :o(

Posted 5 months ago #
Cait
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I understand the comfort in the "today is not the day" sentiment, but there is no use in telling people when and when not to talk about things. People deal with grief differently, it's what we're all doing. Anger is normal in grief. Bargaining (or in the case of guns, "arguing") is normal too. You would never tell someone who lost a family member that the way they felt the day it happened was inappropriate. When it's a massive tragedy on this scale, it's all normal and we have to be permissive or just let it be. Saying "No, not now" is very hard and very alienating for people who deal with grief differently to hear. I am angry. I want to fight. I want to DO SOMETHING. And many people do. Many of them use social media. And we all know how to hide from that if it bothers us.

It is a sad fact of the human condition that in 72 hours, we as a nation will be on to the next thing. We need to be frank that there is no healing from this, there shouldn't be. I pray to God that the families directly effected by this do to the best of our abilities, but we have to understand our unique and relatively fortunate situation here. We are bystanders. We are able to look at a situation as people somewhat removed from this to simultaneously be disgusted, angry, horrified, scared and still have the wherewithall to ask the question "How do we make this stop?"

I am absolutely disturbed by what happened and I want to watch us be mature enough as a nation to say "Never again. And NOW. While it's fresh. While people care more about this than who Taylor Swift is dating." And that window is short. We focus so much on "healing" that another tragedy pops up before we have the time, and then the cycle starts over again with people pushing it under the rug until the next time we feel the need to pray or send our thoughts whatever that might mean to these actual real people. The window to make the world listen and participate in a discussion about guns and mental health care is when it's in front of our face. You can bet the NRA is doing it on the other side of this sensitivity spectrum.

No one who lost a child today is checking the West Seattle Blog. It is not inappropriate to say "enough is enough and we need to have the talk now" when we are not dealing with this directly. Because you can bet that for the people who are REALLY dealing with it, it will be one of the first stops on their train of healing toward hope. "How do we make it so this doesn't happen to anyone else's children." And if it were me, I would hope that the nation was behind me. And I'd hope that someone with some power was able to say "One step ahead of you..."

There are answers. They don't arrive without questions.

Posted 5 months ago #
redblack
Member Profile

well-said, cait.

the first question to be answered is, "why don't we have sensible gun control laws?"

and the answer lies in the fact that guns and ammunition are huge, profitable industries in america. they have very powerful lawyers and lobbyists who want to protect those industries.

do we, as a nation, now have the will and the consensus to scrutinize them and check their influence on our society?

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
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I watched Piers Morgan last night....three people on, one of who was a gun lobbyist. His solution? Less gun laws...and he yelled, and talked over the other two participants...and he was an idiot. The other two participants were rational ( a senator, and a rep. from the NRA), and you could tell they were frustrated at the other guy, who wouldn't let them speak. And Piers Morgan just about took his head off...

Posted 5 months ago #
dobro
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in addition to R/Bs question, I would add-

Why are we drugging our kids? I saw a report that this shooter was on psychotropic drugs, like many of the other young people (Columbine, etc) that have gone off the rails like this. Why don't we help disaffected young people with counseling and talking rather than mind altering drugs? Oh, that's right, that costs money.

Why do we allow increasing levels of horrific violence in video games and "entertainments" that kids have plenty of access to? Early training for the coming drone wars, I guess.

Why don't we have easy access to mental health resources for parents and kids alike that aren't just drug-based? Oh, more money.

There's a lot to untangle to figure a way around this kind of unspeakable tragedy, but it's true that if we don't start the questioning we'll never find an answer.

Posted 5 months ago #
realvalueremodeler
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What is the action needed to put an end to the ever repeating violence, conflict and war?
There is actually a time tested and scientifically validated solution. However the solution is not something you can DO much about. It is a simple and enjoyable mental practice. It involves doing next to nothing but profoundly changes a person’s life and the environment in which he/she lives.

Are you ready to set aside looking for the answer in the usual and customary places? Consider entertaining something improbable:

http://westseattleblog.com/forum/topic/peace-on-earth-a-viable-approach

I hope you can see the possibility that there is a way out of our lousy human performance to date.

Posted 5 months ago #
westcoastdeb
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Saw today that Westboro is planning to picket (or whatever you call what they do) the memorial for these kids.

Senseless.

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
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deb...I wish the ground would just open up beneath them and swallow them whole. There has to be a reason they exist, but it's beyond my imagination...

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
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oops...double post

Posted 5 months ago #
Cait
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Though Jan, if anything has ever warranted a double post that would be it. Agreed, agreed, agreed.

Posted 5 months ago #
TanDL
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Having a conversation about the easy availability of guns in America is a conversation we need to have in depth following this horrible event. But I feel there are other conversations we need to have as well. One of the biggest is how we deal with mental illness in this country. Here's a blog posting from a mom pleading for help with her mentally ill son, that's making the rounds on Facebook.

http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/thinking-unthinkable.html How can we help this mom before she and other innocents become victim statistics?

Another conversation might be what price are we paying for allowing our children to be exposed to violent media and "entertainment" venues. Maybe how we're buying into technology that so easily isolates our children from each other, diminishing abilities to empathize and relate to one another as fellow human beings.

There are likely other conversations we could have as well to begin not only the process of healing from this awful event, but to look at our society with a critical eye and see if there aren't ways to stop this.

Posted 5 months ago #
Cait
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I'm not sure what about the "I Am ____ ____ Mom" article rubs me the wrong way but it does. (I'm following Anderson Cooper's lead and not mentioning his name.)

Posted 5 months ago #
Cait
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Maybe it's just because I'm not a parent but a legitimate reason to imprison someone is a legitimate reason regardless of whether it's my child or not. If the answer is that things are as hopeless as she admits they are and imprisonment saves her life and maybe the lives of others, why wouldn't you make that call? I understand there are maternal instincts involved by the "I'm not convinced that this is the answer for my son" doesn't cut it for me. It has to be hard, but it doesn't sound like mental health care has helped and I'm sure this isn't the only case of it's kind. What do we do when both prison systems and all known current means of mental health care fail?

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
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definitely a good read...and will start even more conversations:

http://www.stonekettle.com/2012/12/bang-bang-crazy-part-two.html

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
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We teach our children to be good killers via video games..

what was once understood to be the game of cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers now teaches kids the physical rush of mowing down as many people as you can as quickly as you can

we feed them rage via the nightly news...

and we expect this not to turn out badly?

What were we thinking?

Posted 5 months ago #
TanDL
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Insightful writing from Alaska, JanS.

Posted 5 months ago #
JoB
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JanS... i want to add my thanks to TanDL's

i think like that..
but i sure don't write like that ;)

Posted 5 months ago #