I Wish I May I Wish I Might Be A Fighter Of This Crazy Life

In the shadow of a calling I found myself...

                                                Thinking about the youth of today and...my heart is sad and hopeful

Musical Moment ~ “Modulations" Ani Difranco

Fire Island Magic - Photo Credit - Deborah Blake Dempsey

So many damn shootings going over the last few years and now we are escalating at an alarming rate. I'm not going to talk gun control or politics, but I have to wonder - after going to a gun range and handling a Sig Sauer myself - how the complete and overwhelming feelings and knowledge of respect and responsibility of LIFE does not convince more people that pulling the trigger can be an act with life altering results that can affect so many lives and that of a nation. The first time I pulled the trigger I stopped before I shot again and I sat with that moment because it rocked me to my soul. I felt that responsibility. I took that moment so that when I wrote about it in my stories, I never took the act lightly. I wanted to understand what that moment would truly mean. I don't know all the details at the Tennessee State University, but a dice game is no place for a gun to every be pulled, cocked, and shot. Are we so desensitized about human life that taking another persons life or causing injury that leaves someone in a wheelchair or on life-support is so easy to do nowadays? What the hell is going on with our young men that make this a plausible way to deal with anger, grief, confusion, conflict, insecurity, rage, disillusionment, or for them to find a way to define themselves as men in this world? We need a solution. We need to start having honest discussions. We need to start talking to our young people and allowing them to speak their minds and feelings in their own ways and telling us in their own truths - even and maybe especially when it makes us “adults” uncomfortable. Apparently, our young ones are living above a boiler and many of them are starting to blow. What next people? What next? If we don’t begin to talk “with” them instead of “to” or “about” them then nothing will be resolved. Nothing. If this is not a cry for help, I don’t know what is. Are we listening America? Are we?