What Is Causing This Violence?

I haven't written much lately because it seems all the news that is reported is very disheartening...  killer cyclones, volcanic eruptions, school shootings, restaurant bombings, and the crazy man in the Oval Office doing his best to make our great country the laughing stock of the world.
   What is causing a single person to take a weapon and kill multiple people?  Why is this type of behavior, seemingly, becoming normal?  What is causing people, both young and old, to destroy multiple lives?  As someone who wants to, but is afraid to try to commit suicide (for fear of not doing the deed effectively), I cannot grasp the need to kill others... 
   I cannot imagine why two seemingly young(ish) men would take a home-made bomb into a family restaurant in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada and set it off during two private parties - injuring 12 and causing critical injuries to three people.  The three have had surgery and are now upgraded to serious condition.  Canada law enforcement is looking for the two men, who were caught on video, who carried the bomb into Bombay Bhel and then left.
   Why would a student in Noblesville, Indiana ask to to to the restroom during a test in his science class, and return with two handguns, and start shooting?  Thank goodness the science teacher, Jason Seaman, is seemingly fearless.  He charged the student, who had already shot and wounded a female student, taking three bullets in his chest.  Mr Seaman tackled the gunman, and told the rest of the students to run away.  He and the female student survived, and the shooter is under arrest.  He is a true hero!

This photo is from the University of Southern Illinois, which science teacher Jason Seaman attended.

   Natural events, we/I have no way of controlling, but I still feel badly for the people afflicted with these events.

   The man in the Oval Office of the White House - well, all I can do is hope he will soon be impeached and/or imprisoned.  He is using his position as a way to stuff his own pockets (and those of his family) with money that is illegally gained.  His stupid little dancing and one-upmanship game with North Korea's Kim Jong Un is senseless.  His sudden caring about ZTE, a Chinese company banned from selling in the US due to spying and stealing in the past, is only tied to the $500,000 the Chinese government contributed to one of his building projects in a third country....

   Just thinking about that man makes me want to take a shower in bleach to remove the slime...

    

24 Days, 11 Shootings

Yesterday was the twenty-fourth day of the new year, 2018.  Yesterday, the United States of America saw the eleventh shooting take place in a school this year.   Look at the numbers - 24 days, 11 incidents where gunfire was heard in a class room.  Something is not right in our society.  What has gone wrong?
   When white people infiltrated North America, they brought with them a society that was "more advanced" than the Native Americans had.  The main advantage was in weapons, the second was in disease immunity.White people wiped out the native people by killing them diseases the natives had no immunity against, by taking over the natives producing agricultural fields and the settlements near them, and by sheer force.  A bow with arrows and a spear, possibly a hatchet, were no match for a flintlock rifle.
   My own ancestors participated in "taming" America - one of my many-greats-grandfathers was a trader among the Algonquin-speaking tribes in Tidewater Virginia, and he took a native lady as his wife; but he was also a part of Bacon's Rebellion, and was hanged.  In New England, a lot of my ancestors killed natives, and were killed by natives. One ancestor, originally a cabinet-maker, ended up being the coffin-maker at Plymouth Plantation - he was rarely without work.
   And, of course, as the new American civilization moved westward, so, too, did my ancestors... usually with plows, but sometimes with guns.  My Mom was a great fan of "the Wild West," but my Dad, who was born in Oklahoma and raised in Oklahoma and Kansas during the Dust Bowl, knew the realities. 
    So why, today, in the year 2018, and the past year, 2017, did we Americans see so much violence wrought against school children, church-goers, and folks out to have a good time at concerts, clubs, and cinemas?  Why are people, young and old, grabbing a firearm and killing others?  Why?
    My parents did not own a gun while I was alive.  I know that Dad used to hunt for the dinner table as boy, and so did my Mom... They knew how to use a gun, but they did not own one.  I was taught how to use both a handgun and a rifle, and I have killed rattlesnakes - but I've never thought of using a weapon on another human being.  How can people do such things?
   Is it the proliferation of slow-motion bombings and killings that we now see regularly on television and at the theater?  Is it the proliferation of video games, where the object is to kill as many people or things as possible? 
    Why are the only people protesting these continuing horrors people who have been harmed or who have lost loved ones?
    We, as Americans, need to examine our moral fiber and see what is WRONG.
          Gun violence is NOT the answer.

Thoughts On Violence

I dislike violence.  But I enjoy watching professional (and collegiate) American football and hockey games, and I used to get a kick out of watching professional wrestling.  These are violent sports, where injury is always possible.  Of course, I also enjoy horse back riding, both English and Western, and I have broken multiple bones and stopped counting concussions when the number got above 20...
  But I abhor the violence that seems more prevalent these days - gun and knife violence.  There have been more shootings at educational and shopping venues this past week.  Adults and children have been stabbed in their vehicles, in parks, and on the street.  I cannot sit back and keep my mouth shut...  What is happening to our society?  Why does it seem, apparently, that more and more people are using guns and knives to express and satisfy their anger and hurt?
  I'm the first to admit that I really love to read - and I read lots of mysteries, thrillers, fantasies and histories.  The mysteries and thrillers usually involve one or more deaths (and so, too, do the fantasies and histories) - but for me, these killings and deaths are at a "remove" - they are something I'm reading for entertainment, and unless the book is a history, are entirely fictional.  Someone makes up horrible crimes in their mind, and then sets a protagonist to solve the crime and deal with the evil-doer.  I enjoy them - and I'm always happy when the "bad guy" gets caught and turned over to the authorities, or, even killed by the protagonist...  But I'm very aware that this is fiction.  It is not real.  -  Reading history, on the other hand, can be sickening - reading of man's inhumanity to man over the years...  How "better" methods of torture were thought out, and more horrific ways to die were/are planned, is, to me, like stirring an old body, just to see what types of insects and creatures might appear.   On the one hand, you get to know how certain minds work; on the other hand, I always feel  - soiled - after reading how someone decides to "improve" suffering and death.
  Last night, while doing some research, I had the NBC network on...  I could glance from my PC monitor over to the television screen, and focus on what was happening there.  Last night, I enjoyed dipping in and out of an hour-long show about Shaun White, in his bid to make it to the Sochi Winter Olympics in two very different types of snowboard competition.  That program was followed by a re-run of an earlier The Blacklist, a thriller-type show about the man most-wanted by the US Government...  James Spader plays Raymond "Red" Reddington, and is excellent as a very nasty international player who helps the FBI capture people wanted on the Top Secret Blacklist.  I have always enjoyed Spader's acting prowess - and last night left me pondering...  In a scene in last night's episode, Red is trying to get a "tough guy" to give him some information.  The two are sitting at a table, and Red has secured the other man to a chair.  Red is smoking a cigar, and, as he continues to ask questions, which the other man won't answer, Red pours a flammable liquid all over the man's head, neck and chest.  Red threatens him with the glowing cigar tip, and the man finally gives Red the information he desires.  Red then shoves the lit cigar into the man's mouth - and stands there to watch the expected fireworks.  The cigar has burned down to a stub, and the man is frantically rolling his eyes and trying to keep the cigar from igniting the liquid in his moustache and beard.  Then, Red gives a light laugh, says, "Oh, the suspense is killing me," pulls a pistol from his pocket, and shoots the man with the cigar.  - I actually laughed when I saw this scene.
   During the night and this morning, I have pondered over my reaction.  My mind keeps telling me that another bad guy bit the dust.  It also says that "this is fiction!" And it also is revolted that Red can so cold-heartedly shoot the victim, who can't defend himself.  Characters die horribly throughout this series - shot, poisoned, burned to death, put into acid baths alive, beaten to death.  I watch it all, and am not appalled or sickened by the violence.   -  Is it because I am an older person, and know that such evil does exist in the world?  Or have I become immune to seeing and reading such things to such an extent that it no longer bothers me?  Is it because I know that this is fiction?
    But if I can accept these scenes of extreme violence and death as every day occurrences, why, then, am I so horrified by the fact that young people are going out and committing these crimes in real life?  Do we blames the news?  Do we blame the media?  Do we blame movies and television?  Or has our society just reached a point where we need a more restrictive "Big Brother" looking over our shoulders?  Why do the young people of today not seem to realize that the deaths of others is not an answer to their own pain?  Why do they feel that it is fine to take a gun and explosive devices and kill and hurt people they don't even know? I am just plain old puzzled  - and wish I knew the answers.
  (Please do not take this as the rant of someone who is anti-gun, or anti-knife.  Guns and knives are safe in the hands of trained individuals - it's the other folks who frighten me.)

Random Thoughts

With 95% of the yard still under several inches of snow, I'm still putting out bird seed, nuts and baguette rounds for the birds and squirrels.  Most of the time my kits accept that they must stay inside, but Lovey was extremely vocal last night, for a two hour period...  I felt bad, but having called the police, yet again, about the couple next door, I didn't feel it was safe to allow either kit outside.
  I spoke to Britta, the next door neighbor, on Thursday.  She said she had a new, female room mate, who had brought her cat over to keep Baby, Britta's cat, company.  (I really wondered about that, since it's a 500 square foot studio apartment, like mine.)  Last night, she had her "boyfriend" back over and they started fighting - both were yelling, and I was determined to ignore the noise until I heard her yell, "You're hurting me!  Let me go!"  So I once more called 911.  About three minutes before the Boulder police arrived, he left via the back door and climbed over the fence.  Britta refused to answer the door. BPD told me to continue calling them, but that since Britta allows him back, their hands are tied - she has refused counseling and no longer wants their assistance.  So I get to be the documentation person....
  Brother-in-law Kent spent Thursday in the ReHab section of the hospital, following his brain tumor biopsy. He is having difficulty using his left side, but the MDs seem impressed with his drive to recuperate.  He was allowed to get up and walk a bit, wear his own clothes (instead of a hospital gown), and go to the restroom by himself.  But he had three seizures during the night and was moved back into Intensive Care early yesterday morning.  Not knowing what type of tumor this is, and not knowing of a possible treatment, is very wearing on the family.  The MDs did another MRI of Kent's brain yesterday and had to report that the tumor was larger....  Hoping to get some good news from the Mayo Clinic regarding Kent's tumor....
  Rosie and Lucy and Boo have been brightening my mornings - they are all so happy to see me and go for a walk and a romp in the snow.  Kathy and Jim are not going to Santa Fe for Christmas, so I'll be splitting my time between my kits, and Charlie and Tinkerbelle.  Then I'll be moving in with Rosie for New Year's.
  While still worrying about Kent, I've been mourning the death of Nelson Mandela.  And then we had another high school shooting incident here in Colorado.  The young man who apparently "went over the edge" yesterday was a very good student, an athlete, and a member of the debate team.  His friends say he had very strong political opinions, and that he was angered by his debating coach's views.  He was heard asking for his debating coach, while armed on the campus.  The teacher/coach was informed and he left the school in hopes of drawing the shooter away.  It didn't happen.  A 17-year-old female student is still in critical condition from the shotgun blast; the student then shot himself, leaving two explosive devices inside the school.  No one else was harmed.  But the Denver area is reeling - and it's all one sees on the local news casts ....  
Have we always had this level of violence in our society, and were just not aware of it until today's technology made "news" almost instantaneous?  Were previous killings just hushed up and swept under the rug?  Or have we, society as a whole, become more violent?  What happened to debates - or even wrestling matches?  Why must people today use guns and/or bombs and create a bloody mess?

The Pope; Reality

So, Pope Benedict XVI is resigning from his elected position as the leader of the Roman Catholic church. Joseph Ratzinger is, after all, 85 years old, and has health problems. Being the leader and figure-head of such a large and complex political and religious machine must be extremely wearing on one's mind, heart, and soul. He feels he can no longer shoulder the burden of the world, and I believe, that since he feels and thinks that way, his resignation is a good thing. I did have to laugh when I saw a news story that asked if the Pope could, actually, resign...
  A wild and varied bunch of news headlines today, besides the Pope's resignation - a cruise ship adrift in the Caribbean, near the Yucatan , after an engine fire; shootings on Bourbon Street in New Orleans; shootings in a Wilmington, Delaware bank. It seems so unreal to me. - I mean, I grew up watching Western movies and TV shows, and I've seen plenty of action-adventure-thriller movies with explosions and gun fights galore - but I don't want to go out and shoot anyone. I admit openly that I love Bruce Willis in the role of John McClane in the Die Hard movie series, and I love Clint Eastwood in his Man-With-No-Name westerns and his "Dirty" Harry Callahan movies. It's nice to see the good guys win every once in a while, even if they don't do it "by the book" and the laws of our nation. .... But, this is fiction. It is actors and acting under the direction of others. It is not true life. It is escapism.... I'm beginning to wonder if the majority of young people today can actually tell the difference between reality and their fantasy worlds.

Too Much Information

I know that violence occurs every day. I know that there are thousands who die daily that do not "deserve" to die; and who among us really has that decision to make? I know that I don't... Since time immemorial, there has been plague, illness, famine, drought, pestilence, war and death - it is mentioned in all myths and legends of all countries. Once mankind developed a written language, all of these things have been recorded. Mankind's ways of killing have become more mechanized and specialized; now we can kill or infect millions of people at once, or one specific individual. It is truly frightening. Yesterday, a man returned home (having spent the night away, after an argument with his wife) and found a house full of death; his wife had shot and killed two of their three children, had critically injured the third with a gunshot, and then had killed herself. It is a terrible tragedy. In California, everyone is on the alert for an ex-Los Angeles police officer, who has killed three former co-workers and has a "hit list" posted with quite a few more. The man shot and killed an armed officer this morning, who was investigating the reported sighting of the ex-cop's vehicle. Tell me, please, what is happening in this world? Are people, as a whole, so inter-connected by so many media devices that one cannot escape all the reports of death and destruction? - I certainly don't remember the local news, when I was growing up, talk about this attack and that killing, and that fight, and this arrest... I remember news stories about fairs and museums and the Space Program - and, yes, I do remember the funeral of President Kennedy being covered on television - but that was an Earth-changing event.... I guess I'm just too saddened and depressed by all of the news of death and killings and mayhem....
  It's a beautiful blue-skied morning here in Boulder. Nedi and Lovey have been sun-bathing on the patio, and the squirrels are jumping over them to get to their nut supply in my wicker chairs. It's hysterical - watching the squirrel measure the length of the jump he has to make, crouching down, and then flying up and over the cat. Nedi occasionally swats a foreleg up into the air, but he's not really trying to catch a squirrel... And the squirrels could easily walk around the cats and reach the nuts, without leaping over the cats. I'm sure they all enjoy their games. Sleet fell last night, and there was a heavy frost on the grass this morning, but it's in the low 40s again. We are, however, expecting snow over the weekend. (Yeah! We need it.)
  Being ill at home, I haven't been able to see all my usual critters. I miss all the dogs and cats I normally see and care for. Rosie and Remy seem like a dream, as do Aiko and Yoshi, and Sasquatch and Tugger. I know that I'll recover, but I miss seeing all the critters on an almost daily basis. Mona has gone to live with Mike and Erin, so Boo is alone, too. I'm pretty sure she's lonely, having had either her mom, Suki, or Mona, for a constant companion. Maybe I can talk Kathy and Jim into adopting another older dog to be with Boo....