Forgiveness
That’s right. I’m asking forgiveness. On Monday I published an article I wrote on Sunday regarding quotes that I admire. I wrote it Sunday and scheduled its publication for Monday afternoon.
I ask your forgiveness, as, like you, my audience may think the article was crude, crass, and inappropriate for the somber mood of the day. The article was meant to be light-hearted, indicative of something other than the mood of the country, and possibly the world.
Life changing
Unfortunately, life changed once again between those hours when a lone gunman sprayed thousands of high-powered bullets on a crowd of 22,000 people enjoying a concert on the strip in Las Vegas. He killed at least 59 at last count and seriously wounded another 500.
In my opinion, the act was committed by a coward who wanted to inflict as much pain and suffering as he could. He set up his killing stand from a distant elevated perch over 1,500 feet away. He planned and executed this attack over the course of many weeks, if not months.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and the survivors who will forever be scarred by the experience.
Shock
I’ve been in shock since I learned of the attack early Monday morning. All thoughts of my previous article flew out of my memory, replaced with a kind of blank stare and need to do something, anything to be productive. I threw myself into my work. Suffering from a concussion-related injury, I went to the doctor for relief. While he helped my body heal, my soul is still in denial, outrage, and despair.
Having just recently attending a concert in a sold-out venue of 49,000, I could only relate by imagining what I would do if the same happened at my concert. I was on the floor of a multi-purpose arena surrounded by tens of thousands. After the concert was over, it took nearly a half hour to get off the floor and approach a nearby exit. That was when everyone was leaving in an orderly way, still high on the positive vibrations of the performer, Paul McCartney by the way. I can’t even begin to imagine the chaos of what would have happened if those same thousands tried to run and hide, in panic. All of us trying to get out of the killing field I where I found myself.
What are we going to do about it?
The question I have for my country’s leadership is. When the fuck are you going to get off your asses? Will you find courage and tell the gun lobbyists to go fuck themselves and their money? When are you going to put people and country first? I abhor by my leadership’s behavior. I hate allowing their personal greed to outweigh the needs and wants of the people. When will you stop letting thousands die each year in senseless gun violence?
For the victims of the latest in a string of mass shootings, it is too late for them. Please, don’t let it be too late for your family; your brothers and sisters; your mother and father; and your children. Don’t wait until one of you die a senseless death because of some gunman takes out their pain on you.
You owe it to them, you owe it to your constituents, and you owe it to us. Pass a meaningful gun control bill now. Put all other concerns aside. Too many people have sensely died already. Will it take one of you to die before you do something? If that is what it takes, I’ll not sympathize your death.