Sunday, October 04, 2015

Roseburg Tragedy and a Mother's Blindness

The Roseburg college shooting has taken its toll on Oregon.  I watched the coverage for a few hours the day it happened, then I turned off the TV and I couldn't watch anymore.

When the victims were named with their stories, I sat in the dark and sobbed.  Most were young, way too young to face that kind of horror when they'd just gone off to school, somewhere they should be safe from everything but nerves during tests.  There was a woman killed exactly my age, trying to go back to school, was scared to go back but did, hoping to make something of the rest of her life.

I still cry when I think about it.  Why?  I don't know.  I didn't know any of the victims.   People die every day in all kinds of horrible tragic ways.  Car accidents kill people everyday, even the people who were not at fault.  Diseases do also.  19 people just lost their lives in an Afghan hospital when bombs hit, allegedly US bombs.   Over a dozen people are presumed dead from a freighter that unwisely perhaps marked its path through that of a hurricane off the east coast.

When I heard he had 13 or 14 guns, some with him on his rampage, some back at the apartment he shared with his mother, I thought what the fuck?  Who needs that many guns?   Why on earth would someone have that many guns?

Sure, I have a lot of cats, but they're fun.  They play and cuddle and make me happy.  They purr. Guns kill.  That's all they're for.  Killing.   For self defense, one's enough.

When I read that the mother was a big fan of open carry and bragged about her gun arsenal and what she liked to sling over her shoulder, I felt sick to my stomach.  She has a son with obvious anger issues and the house is littered in guns.   What the fuck? Does she not read the news, I thought to myself.  Remember the Sandy Hook mom, buying her twisted son guns, taking him shooting?

Mom should go to jail.  Face the music for lack of judgement.

I know Americans love guns.    I know lack of impulse control is a very common trait anymore.  I know one person's bad day can turn into a fatal day for many now, when a person has a gun to grab.  What I don't know is how the violence in America problem could be solved.  I have no idea.

Nothing will change after the memory of this latest mass shooting fades.  And it will fade.  The next will be farther away, I suppose, and will fade even sooner.

Sometimes I'm grateful there are not even more mass shootings given the number of angry people in society and the availability of weapons of all kinds.

I think to myself it may be more of a problem in America with anger coupled with a lack of empathy for life.  I don't know.

There have been articles about the Sheriff down there and even his facebook posts.  I don't care about the sheriff's facebook posts.  He has a job and he and his fellow officers did the job, a difficult one, when the crisis came.  Leave him alone.  We all have our personal lives, and our lives online and post things one day we wouldn't another.

My old girl, Vision, caught a cold a week ago, and its laying her low.  I don't know if she will survive it.  It's making it hard on her to eat, with the slurpiness of the cold and she was already thin, as old old cats often are.   There is one tech who works at Heartland, who is now in Hawaii, but when she returns, I think I may help Vision on her way if she hasn't kicked the cold by the time of the kind tech's return.


Fall is here, and despite higher than average rainfall in September, right now, we are having very nice weather again.  Might be mid to upper 70's today, in fact.  My 2nd crop of sunflowers has now bloomed!
2nd Crop Sunflower!


Rose of Sharon bloom

Maple leaf colors brilliant in morning sun



 Beauty trumps ugliness!

Oregon will heal.  I hope those wounded in the attack in Roseburg can heal. I hope families of the victims can too.  That would sound shallow to someone in the midst of this, who lost someone, but I don't mean to be trite.  I just don't know what else to say.












6 comments:

  1. Love that you have found the beauty in the midst of all the ugliness.
    How I wish that there were easy answers. Answers that could be accepted.

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    Replies
    1. There is always beauty isn't there, to be found. It's what one chooses to see shining most brilliantly.

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  2. Anonymous3:42 PM

    So pleased to hear the sunflowers were successful.

    It was a terrible business in Oregon and widely covered here. There is some kind of saying, the death of someone in your street equals the death of two people in your city, equals the death of five in your state.....etc. It sounds like it was just a little bit too close to home for you.

    Will there ever be the Great US Disarmament of its citizens? The only reason anyone needs a gun for self defence is against someone else who has a gun. The best that can be hoped for is a large reduction, I suppose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's true, the closer to home it is, the harder it is to dismiss. I am happy about the sunflower bloom also. No, there will be no disarming of citizens. Nothing will change. It never does. No one even talks about it until these mass shootings, then it is talked about briefly and dismissed. Too many paranoid people who think the government is out to get them here. I know people with 40 plus guns in their house. Not sure how a person could shoot more than one gun at once. He especially might have trouble, since he's drunk dawn to dark.

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  3. I agree with this quote: "Love that you have found the beauty in the midst of all the ugliness." Glad to see your sunflowers blooming and sad to see Vision laid so low. Best wishes. I'll say a prayer and watch for updates.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Turning off the TV has helped tremendously with input of ugliness. I love my 2nd crop of sunflowers! I hope Vision recovers, thanks for the well wishes. Seems better today.

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