Like many of you here, I awoke to the news of the massacre in Las Vegas with bleary eyes and a more than heavy heart. The effect that it had on me was one all too familiar to this caring soul, and the afterthought one that was done out of self preservation. I closed up, I created that wall to my empathy because this could steal it all away in an instant. The sympathy was there, the caring and the wanting of things to change this time; Yet, there was the closing up, there was the bubbling up into my own world again. Too bad that in real life that world of Las Vegas, was in fact my world, the one I had to survive in and swim through at least.
There were too many things happening in my own life to worry about others to that degree. When my friend checked in safe later on that day, it really hit me how selfish and self centered I was/am. If I would have been a really good friend I would have remembered that he worked at the Casino that the shooter was using for his plotline. That made me stop and recognize the condition my condition was in. It was there in that little dimly lit corner that I found it almost like a frail waif defiantly glaring and screaming at me with not a voice spoken but one shouted from mind to mind. I can’t take it ENOUGH! The words still echoing
When tragedies and crazy people happen to turn their malice towards the innocent, there is, in that moment and the ones that follow, the teachings we so quickly forget. They are in themselves the answers to a lot of our questioning, and the absolute fact to our quizzical belief systems.
When people realized that their good time was not being celebrated with fireworks but firing upon, there were no races, there were no left and right, there were no blue collar or white, there were human beings. The ones that went into action did not ask people who they voted for before lifting them over a barrier. The color of the skin was unimportant as the strength needed to lift you to your feet, or scamper you to the ground, get running, or stop. In that moment, and the ones that follow are the answers to the questions we argue about in the bigger picture, when we sit comfortably at home and wall up to worry about our immediate needs first. Yes, survival skills set down in a organic goo long ago, but one that we as an “evolved” species should at least recognize. Because blood runs downhill, and I still have my house in the valley… being selfish and self centered anymore can be deadly.
Those bigger issues we question, those resentments and bigotry we carry, those fears of a little child inside, can all be assuredly addressed when things like this strike at our collective souls. The thought that one person could do so much harm, should not be lost. Yet at the same time, the thoughts that one person could do so much should also not be lost either. The heroic stories that are coming from this are coming from folks like you and I, who, in the blink of a moment saw a need for action. There is a common factor that all of their stories share and it is also one aspect that shouldn’t fade from memory. They simply saw people that needed to get to safety, get help or need help, and went back to check for more until they were unable themselves. In those horrific moments, when the world was coming apart for some, were the answers to many questions.
Those human beings saw the only thing to do, like our Founding Fathers, they got people to safety, they grabbed their arms and lifted them up, they pushed them along when they had no more. The shots fired from above all to symbolic of the Crown and its acts towards the people, the innocent, the injured, the lower classes. The reason why we protect life is because it is sacred, in every religion and every proper mind. The life you disparage, the person you fear out of ignorance may save yours one day, may put the loan through at the bank all unknown to you because of fear and ignorance; Lazy thinking for the entertainment generation. With everything at our fingertips, so many don’t know how to get past the schizzle to get to the real.
We forget that as a Nation our fabric consists of the same things. We see that people are in trouble, that lives are at stake. We get them to safety and we nurse them to health the best we can if needed. In that process we take into our collective weave a power and a light; In that entirety is the American Dream. All bring their expectations and desires, their wish lists for their individual freedoms, and their divisiveness and ignorance. What we do from there is sit in our armchairs and decide what parts to include and what parts we don’t want and do the Tango with our self centeredness and ego’s. What we forget all too often and all too easily are the lessons that are instilled and the answers that lie in our mistakes. We are humans first, we take that part very seriously, down to our own lives. We are a Nation as well, and until that humanity that we saw and continue to see in all too often and all too tragic events is remembered and taken seriously by those in charge of our egoic and selfish laws and regulations. We will continue to dye our nation’s fabric in the blood of its own people and repeat the tragedies until the lessons are learned and learned again.