Okay, I live here, so I might as well as talk about it.
School shootings, Mall shootings, gang shootings, terrorism... ... ...it is all senseless violence... ...and I don't care. I don't really know anyone who would shop at Von Maur around lunch hour so I wasn't worried if I knew anybody. Every radio station and News station was covering it because this town has little to report...so why not take our chance and saturate every chance we get about terrible and evil things. Seriously, every report jumped at it like jackals on a fresh kill...like it is world news. Anyway...so it was on every radio station, so I turned it to classical which had a small report and then back to music. I watched some stuff on the DVR and some netflix that showed up, went to the laundr-o-mat, cause I didn't want to get stuck with dirty clothes after the storm hit today, and watch a little more netflix, then went to bed. I get to work this morning and my boss asks if I'm okay. I said 'Yeah, I've requested to keep out of the loop, but informed every now and then to know how he is doing," (thinking she was referring to my dad). She says, "no, no, no, I mean, I'm glad everything is going well with your dad. I was talking about the shooting." I had completely forgot about that. That is how much I care. It happened, It hasn't effected directly in any way, I have nothing at stake, it was a tragedy, I move on. I'm not mad, pissed, upset, frustrated, etc. at the shooter. I do feel a bit upset with the people he knew. People don't do this on a whim, their environment leads them to it, the people they interact with (not necessarily bad people, maybe hard life, hard upbringing, hard times, maybe he saw how things and people treated his friends and family and felt angry and useless), the stories they hear and experience. He didn't do this... ... ...we did, society did, his parents, his friends, his environment, his medication (if he was taking any) or lack thereof, not the lessons he was taught, but how he learned them. They all had a hand in it. He just fired the gun. Speaking of, AK-47?!?!?! Well, he wanted to go out with a bang, that's the gun to use.
You can't stop tragedies like this, you can't protect yourself from them, there are bad eggs out there. True, you may not have a chance to say good-bye, to hold your loved ones close, you may not be ready to die yet. Tough, Death is gonna find you, he always does, so kiss your loved ones, love them like it is your last chance,... ... ...cause it could be.
My recommendation is to make your peace with what you need to. Don't fear death, fight the fear that you may die at any moment with acceptance. Enjoy the beauty in everything, even in the process of life moving on without you. Truly realize the effect you have on the world even if it is your little corner of it. All other worries seem to melt into minor inconveniences, and if you fret over minor inconveniences, then you worry to much about things beyond your control. Life is about living it. So live each day, not as if it were your last, just live it. Find that small piece of enjoyment and hold on to it. Any day is worth enjoying even a bad one. How else are you gonna enjoy the beauty that much more if you don't remember how ugly things can get. Things like this bring out the best and worst in people. And it is sad that it takes things like this to remind us to cherish what we have in our lives and that we are still experiencing it. But that is how our society has evolved. It takes things like this to shake the awareness of the public out of their zombified comas of everyday life, and to see the world again refreshed. Take it from someone who woke up 12 years ago, if you hang on to that feeling of awakened-ness nothing will come as a shock anymore; the world will have death and life all over it and you will see how organized all this chaos is. And it is a thing of indescribable beauty. You will feel like you are one with understanding. You will feel bright. I won't embellish to much; after all, I have succumbed quite often since then, kinda like nodding off in class, but I snapped out of it myself every time.
So there is my 2 coppers,... ... ...he can have 'em... ... ...the ferry man needs to be paid.
| You Are 78% Evil |
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5 comments:
I have to slightly disagree with you on one thing, this was world news, or at least nation news. It was all over CNN so while the local reporting did go overboard it was a big deal. And while I hate to say "I knew the shooter" or "I met the shooter" because that implies I actually knew his name and he knew mine, the fact is that I talked to him either Monday or Tuesday night. I am right now working at the Blockbuster in Bellevue right next to the McDonalds that he worked at and I talked and joked with him while waiting for my order. It makes the whole thing really surreal for me and I can see why those around him thought this was out of the blue. He was in a good enough mood to laugh with a stranger one or two nights before it happened. That said, I made my peace and moved on and I do agree that outside those whose lives were personally affected by this the rest of the city should too. Worse stuff happens everyday around the world and we ignore it but because of proximity people can't seem to move on. I am sure we will be hearing about this for a long time.
I didn't say it wasn't world news its just that the media was loosed so quickly it seemed to me that it they took their chance to make Omaha the spotlight. "Look at me, look at me, yeah, something happened in Omaha, can you believe it; well slap my hide and call me Bertha" sort of thing.
Yeah, they did and they did some irresponsible reporting too, like the shooter was black and wearing army fatigues. I am not even sure where they got that. I was at work when it happened so I didn't see anything until later that evening, but people kept coming in with updates and that was one of them.
Okay here's my issue - yes it is a tragedy and big news blah blah blah, but can we please get beyond the 24/7 coverage. Granted I did not even believe middle son when he came home and told me (bad mom) but do we really need to pre-empt all of tv? They were running scrolls at the bottom of the screen, wasn't that enough? BTW it may be bad to say but I am really glad to be off of the crisis task force.
Ferry man paid.
TJ...
As this is the first comment I have made to your blog I must say your commentary is very well put and always expressive of your personality, it is as if you are in front of me.
That said, you are right on the money with this. The non-stop news coverage not only over blew a tragic and isolated incident it also preempted both Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money. I may seem like a rational and reasoned person for saying, but news has become a boring funnel of speculation and rehash. How dare the people at KETV take my right to watch a show instead of hearing rehashed bits and "eyewitness" reports and their reporters perspective. The kid was fucked up. He did something insanely stupid. He killed friends and family members of 8 people who had nothing to do with his sad and angry frustration. Let's see that on the scroller and move on with the show.
The thing that came to mind is that "it takes a village to raise a child." As sick as it may seem, the system may have failed us again. He was in and out of juvie, and had access to a deadly weapon. I won't say that he was without blame, but you don't just find a AK-47(his step fathers I believe was mentioned briefly). This is where some weapon laws could come in handy.
Guns win wars... and kill people...
I don't mind hunters, military, police, or even security guards having weapons. I just ask they are properly locked and not within the reach of someone who is depressed and has a history of criminal action. And please if the news wants to tell me something is tragic, make like Naked News, and take that top off. Just my two shekels.
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