THIS WORLD SUCKS

due to computer issues, this blog was delayed and originally delivered via e-mail.

 

There was a time in America when you could drop your kids off at school or church and know that they were safe and when you dropped them at the movies or the mall, maybe you kept your fingers crossed that you wouldn't get a shoplifting call from mall security or the manager of the cinema for throwing popcorn but at the same time, you knew you'd see them in a couple of hours and all would be well.

 

You might have crossed your fingers a little tighter and exhaled a little harder when they finally arrived home from a concert but attending musical events was part of growing up. after all, we did it and we're ok, right? 

 

For the adults, what could possibly go wrong when you and your friends stop at a small café for drinks and snacks and talked about the upcoming company Christmas party and all you had to worry about was your husband having too much to drink and telling the boss what he really thought about his management style. Or maybe you discussed going to an upcoming sporting event to cheer on your favorite athlete as he runs the local marathon. Small concerns for everyday activities.

 

But no more. the psychos and zealots have taken to the streets and mass murders have begun on what seems to be an almost weekly basis and it's painfully apparent that there is no safe place anymore in this great country of ours or for that matter, any place in the world.

 

I don't have children but I worry and pray everyday about the safety of my brother & sisters, my girlfriend & her daughters, my pain in the ass nephews and their families along with my nieces and their loved ones, not to mention my close friends. During 20+ years in law enforcement, I saw my share of tragedies but not to this level and certainly not this often and I'm struggling to find the words to explain the world to my friends and even to myself.

 

What drives two brothers to plant bombs at the Boston marathon ? What political symbol could 10,000 racers, most running just to run, possibly possess to drive those madmen to make that decision? or to open fire at an outdoor café in Paris and kill at random?

 

How does a guy in his 20's decide that it's ok to massacre first & second graders while they sit in a class room on the east coast? or open fire in a Colorado movie theatre and kill 12 people and wound 58 others watching the premier of the new Batman movie and bring ten full magazines of extra ammo with him? he obviously didn't have one specific target but just random killing in mind.

 

recently, we had a psycho open fire at a prayer meeting HE attended but to what end? and of course, we're all still reading about yesterday's carnage at a California Christmas party.

 

there is a temptation to just shake our heads when the bad guy is from the middle east and say "of course" or when the shooting involves the military, we tend to accept it as one of the hazards of the job but the sad part is we're becoming numb to the killing because the shooting sprees are just piling up and they tend to blur together. 

 

 here's a test for you: Blacksburg, Virginia,......Newton, Connecticut....Fort Hood, Texas......I bet you got at least two of those as sites of killing sprees but how about these?

 

Binghamton, NY..... Atlanta, GA.....Kinston, AL.....Roseburg, Or..........Red Lake, MN.......Seal Beach, CA....

Carthage, NC......Appomattox, VA.........

 

how did you do with those cities & towns?

 

those were all locations of shooting sprees that killed at least eight people and they all occurred within the last six years but unless you have family or friends living there, I doubt that you remember anything about them. one after another after another....the beat goes on.

 

there is some validity to the argument about closing our borders but even if you do that, how do we stop our home grown whack jobs?

 

most times, their own parents have no idea as to what they were up to and I'm going to spit the next time I hear a parent say "I had no idea he had so many guns" or "he was just a quiet boy who had no friends so most of the time he stayed upstairs in his room playing on his computer" or "he had problems holding down a job because his bosses would always pick on him because he was different."  hello? FYI--if he lives in YOUR house, you have right to know what he's doing so get your head out of the sand. but personal freedom and civil liberties is a discussion for another day.

 

I'm sad & frustrated and I don't know how to help other than to protect my own but I wish your kids and their kids a lot of luck in the future and they're going to need it because evil answers to a different god that has no morals and knows absolutely no boundaries. 

 

Hug them every day because you never know. 

 

sorry for the content but I had to get this off my chest.