Todays World

Not sure how or what to say about the sadness and tragedy of today's world. My life began with tragedy the picture I am sharing is my mother. Andrea my beautiful mother was shot in the the head on June 17, 1958. I was next to her. Every time I hear about another shooting, murder, I feel the gut wrenching sadness of my mother's murder. What I have learned is that hurting people hurt people when they are backed into the wall by their own pain which they have lost faith and hope of overcoming. People say guns are bad, people say people are evil, people say laws will help, people say the criminal justice system will help us all. People say a lot of things, I believe compassionate understanding and genuine aid for the hurting will begin to address the wounds of our world today. I worked in maximum security prisons and the stories of early trauma and unresolved wounds of the perpetrators was overwhelmingly present. It would be easy to hate murders, but when I listen to their own early stories the pattern was pervasive. Yes choices to choose good or bad actions are in the hands of all, however the deep issue to turn our world around is not to legislate this or that. The deep issue is to bring back humanity and understanding in how we treat the wounded. Even veterans! This article is not to argue for laws, programs, judgements it is a call to help the wounded when they are too wounded to understand the impacts of what they have been exposed to. Humanity trumps all other arguments. I am a veteran and a child of a mother murdered way before I was 3 months old.