This is me sitting in my happy place...on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson in 2009. I love Tucson. I loved it the first day I went to visit, I loved it for 4 1/2 years of living there and I love it every time I go back. The hardest move I have made thus far in the military was the night Brandon and I drove out of Tucson. I cried until we got to Utah, no exaggeration. Tucson was always a comfortable place where I felt at home...I felt like me.
We can argue about the motive of this terrible act. Was it political? What the young man insane? Are gun laws too lenient, especially in Arizona? Does it matter? No motive, explanation or cause will change what happened. No motive will make what happened okay or begin to explain it to me. How one person could destroy the lives of so many with hatred. It won't bring 6 people back to life...it won't heal the wounded...it won't take the fear from the minds of all of those who were there to witness it...it won't stop the people of Tucson from grieving...it won't stop tragedies like this from happening again even more sadly.
I am just so heartbroken that we continue to see these mass killings happen in our country...that people have access to guns that clearly shouldn't. (I am not anti the right to bear arms, but I am pro stricter gun laws). I am baffled that a young man was so clearly disturbed and no one around him thought to get him help, make him seek treatment if possible, but keep him from doing such harm. How can you not know and see the signs that he was deeply troubled and dangerous? How could he get a gun? I am sad that people in our country have gotten to a point that we sling hostile and hate filled comments and insults with no thought or consequence. I don't want to raise my children in a world like that. Where it is okay to hate someone for their beliefs. Why can't we teach it is okay to disagree, to respect the opinions of others? Do unto others as you would have done to you? What kind of world are we creating for our children that they themselves are now terrorists in our own country?
I am just sad. Sad on so many levels. I love Tucson and this horrible act won't change that love, take away my memories or make me afraid to go back there. It is a beautiful city with so much to offer, wonderful people and a rich culture. But I am sad at what has happened there, because it is just a sliver of what is happening all over this country...
1 comment:
It makes me sad, too. What it has done for me, is made me more aware of is the violence that other countries live with on a daily basis. Since the Tucson incident, I have been more aware of the news headlines in places like Pakistan, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan... places where this kind of violence is common place. EMay it never be common place in America and may we never become "used" to it. Frankly, it made me sick to see the sh*$ fly from both sides of the aisle before the police tape was removed from the Safeway. This guy is a lunatic. It wasn't any political group's fault. He would have gotten his gun just like most of the bad guys do (he just happened to get it legally, unlike most of the bad guys), one way or another. It also makes me aware (again) of the fact that life is fragile, we never know when our number is up. Let's get out there and live our lives with purpose and remember that every day could be our last.. (Geeze, this isn't like me to leave novel comments first thing in the AM). Love you, Susan.
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