I had a whole post ready to go for today. About senseless violence and targeted minorities and lax gun measures and horrific election reactions and about one sweet baby boy and his immeasurably grieving parents.
And I couldn’t finish it.
More often than not it feels like I’m sitting vigil with my ever-refreshing news feeds; click, scroll, cry, panic, rinse, repeat.
Plus, let’s be honest. Absolutely no one in the world needs my feelings (in 800 word diatribe form) about senseless violence and targeted minorities and lax gun measures and horrific election reactions and holy shit, do I really need to fear m-fing alligators, too?
And if you do need those diatribes, check the news, the Facebook scrolls, the tweets, and the never-ending nasty opinions of folks blissfully removed from anything resembling reality, let alone the situation for which they’re vomiting noise.
There is so much noise.
There is so little listening.
I believe that we, as a society, need to be smarter. We, as an internet community, need to quell the trolls. And we, as parents- or those of us who dearly, desperately love a child- need to hold each other up.
Especially when those erratic, panicked, 2am fears which grip us until we can’t breathe come terrifyingly true for other parents.
Like at the edge of a Disney lagoon.
Or in a nightclub.
Oh this? Just a picture of a really big dandelion. I’m legit that done.
I believe that we need to help. Sometimes that help manifests itself financially, sometimes through community action, and sometimes it’s by shutting the hell up until you’re certain your words are being used for good.
I’m trying really, really hard for that trifecta.
Because right now, Rome is burning. And unless that meme you’re posting comes equipped with an automatic sprinkler system, it’s probably just internet kindling.
We’re the strongest nation in the world.
Let’s be the strongest nation in the world.
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Help the victims of the Orlando shooting here.
Help prevent gun violence here.
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