What to do about twenty new angels?

What to do about twenty new angels?

I write this now because like everyone one else I needed time to gain some distance and clarity

Listen.

Listen to Regina Spektor’s “What We Saw From the Cheap Seats” -- she is what we need right now. The ability to drink down the bitter brew and absorb every painful nuance and come up from under the table--untarnished, sweet and hopeful. She is our conduit back to reality--back to faith, how ever twisted or rearranged it’s become as of late.

What We Saw From the Cheap Seats 

Honor.

Honor them by preserving the truth. We need to face the whys and the hows of that brought to fruition this latest mass killing. What are the common factors in these crimes.
Let’s not make this about politics or egos or supposed holier than thou approaches to what would be beneficial and in the end effective.  The truth is we have to address the gun laws--strict gun control is the only option, in conjunction with radical healthcare reform including progressive mental healthcare initiatives--that include less of a focus on the dispensing of medicines but promoting psychiatric therapy  and long term hospitalization. This is about love, not power and politics.

Introspection.

Introspection is indeed called for here. Why has it taken white America so long to even put this issue of gun control level worthy of national conversation. Most black people I know are horrified about these killings as is everyone else. But they’ve been horrified for a long time. Every time one of their kids gets shot by a stray bullet. Why does a black grandmother walking across the street in Oakland, Ca getting shot not horrify us the way it does them. Every time a black kid gets shot we quickly want to know what his grades were--was he a good student? Why?--he was a student, isn’t that enough to evoke horror? Russell Simmons and Tavis Smiley have long been proponents of gun control and putting into effect other avenues to ensure the reasons for violence and other crime is addressed and lessened.  Surely it is painful to think of any kid getting killed, but there is a bit of bile that comes up in the throat no doubt to think here they’ve been advocating for years and thousands lost and all it takes is twenty wealthier, and a bit lighter babies to get the ball rolling.  They are lovely and smart for not adding hurt and anger to the mix at a time when people are reeling. Surely they see the idea of keeping the eye on the prize being beneficial here.  But maybe if we were to start treating everyone like human beings and equal partners and contributors to our world and deserving of a fair share and fair shake, we would implement laws and programs that would benefit all our citizens as opposed to harming them, hurting them and leaving them unequipped to deal with the pain of life. Perhaps if we implement healthcare and better in city opportunities we’d see a lot less of the adam lanzas in the world who can’t handle the multiple cruelties of a world that he seemed to feel (too much) he was a part of and was in turn a part of him--any other way than to lash out blindly and insanely.

Examine your faith. Is it working for you? The idea that we are connected is huge, whether that is “our g-d who art in heaven,” or you have no G-d,  and everything in between you must understand that we are not entities superimposed  on this world, in no way effecting nor being effected by circumstance or deliberate intent on our parts in any fashion to the good or the bad. Neil Degrasse Tyson says, “Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.” Keep this in mind when considering your faith. Keep this in mind when you elect your politicians, choose your friends or travel other countries or just read the newspaper. Just keep it in mind--always, let it serve as your moral compass.

Read... Fiction-- something great and fun and otherworldly...

 

or for an eye opener anything by  Dr Gabor Mate...       

 

Dr. Gabor Mate