It's The Little Things...

Sometimes it's the little things...

Sometimes it's the little things that make the difference between life & death. A microscopic renegade cell in a person's body can become cancer and take a life. A little thing, like being distracted by the car radio for the barest moment can cause lives to be lost. A small 115 grain bullet can end a life - or save one.

A little thing like being 2 minutes late for work could haved save your life if you worked in the WTC on 9/11. A small thing, like having to wait through one more traffic light instead of running it could be the delay that saved you from having that fatal accident moments later as another car passed your intended path. A small thing like a glance, or brush of skin could be the difference between finding love and being alone.

A small thing like projecting confidence when you walk could save you being the next target of a mugger or rapist. A small thing like a few words of a speech could change the vote you cast at the elections, and change the entire future of a nation - and a world. A small thing like the substitution of one word for another, or one sound for another could make the difference between a song that is ignored and unheard and one that becomes a top selling hit.

A small thing like a smile or a pat on the head or kiss of a 'hurt' from us as parents could change the feeling of wellbeing and worth of our child, and alter the possible future versions of a person that our child becomes. A small thing like an angry word at the wrong time could be the pivotal moment that changes the cast, the mold that shapes that child's future and everything in it.

A small thing like faith - even the size of a mustard seed (very small) - can move mountains. The smallest grain of doubt could be the weakness that causes the avalanche and brings the entire mountain down.

Everything in life is small.

Derelict

Salt, and darkness
Rust above the waterline
Barnacles clinging to the hull
Expending no effort at all
Drifting in some sort of lull

The wind died in the sails
Died a long time ago
This ship should have stayed in the harbor
Any home port which would claim it

There is not an engine to turn
Not a bed to turn over in
Can't find another human face
In any direction - where to even begin?

I'm not fit to climb the rigging
To bring it all to right
To prepare for a storm which may never come
Rain that may never sweep these decks

I'm dying from the thirst that I feel
Parched lips distracting from the hunger
No food left in the cabinet
Or anyone's quarters

What Captain stays gone from this ship?
By default this is mine
But the barrels in the hold are broken and empty

The stain of need on my mind
Can never wash out
Will always be visible
If there were anyone left to discern anything

Shame For Someone Else

Shame For Someone Else




Guilt melts it's way inside of me, soaking my mind
Melting down into larger pools & flooding into my heart
As I see you recoil
As I see you withdraw from me
As you raise your hands in your own defense at my approach
My God, what's been done to you?

There are no words to guide me, to let me know
Heaven knows that all men are fools
Sometimes even I play the part in some way or other
It's a burden to carry.

Tonight I get no sleep, I lie here trying to make sense
Of how we all end up so alone
My God, who could have done this?

So I try for all I'm worth to redeem you
To pull you back in
I try for all you are worth
To give you back what should have never been taken away

I feel such shame from the actions of someone else
That I couldn't have been there to protect you
But even now you're afraid to allow it
And you raise your hands in your own defense
At my approach
My God, what's been done to you?

The more I've tried the more I've failed
The more I've tried to catch you the further behind I've fallen
I could never have fallen for anyone else
My God, it's a long twisting trail

The Madness Of School Takeovers / Shootings

The Madness Of School Takeovers / Shootings

*****
Today's story about the attack of the Amish school and murder of several little girls followed several similar incidents in the last week, and a few more within the last month.

My sympathies go out to the innocent victims and their loved ones. It is horrifying, especially to those of us who are parents like myself. Twice as horrifying to me, since my girlfriend/fiance works in a school daycare environment and has our daughter with her. If something like this happened there they would both be caught up in it.

So, why would this keep happening at schools?

These scumbags choose daycares, schools & churches because they know a school with young children would have the most emotional impact on the public, would offer them an almost guaranteed defenseless target and almost assured success in accomplishing their purpose. Whether it be the school in Columbine, the Colorado school last week, or the Pennsylvania Amish school today - the intent is to cause terror, angst and pain on their way out. They don’t want anything from it other than to die, and to terrorize and kill others while dying. They want power, and to be feared by their victims – they want total God-like control.

But wait a minute…

You don’t ever hear of these attacks being carried out at the local gun range, gun show, military base or the local police station. Why not?

There is a reason. These scumbags will NOT attack such places because if they do they know they will not feel power, they will not provoke terror and they will not be in control. They would be cut down in a brutal way almost immediately upon beginning such an attack on one of these places because their intended victims would be armed & ready to respond, not cowering helpless and afraid.

There lies the key to what should be done if we really wanted to end such attacks - take away soft targets that he can easily attack with no resistance. As long as we have posted “victim disarmament zones” (ie. ‘gun free zones’ in schools, churches, etc) where a would be killer knows all means of resistance have been removed & prohibited by law, he will favor that target because he will encounter no resistance.

I know that most people’s knee-jerk reaction (thanks to 25 years of social conditioning) will be “No! We must make sure guns can’t get into our schools!”, the truth is that a criminal by definition breaks the law. Laws only affect the conduct of the law abiding. The threat of a prison sentence for bringing a weapon onto school grounds means absolutely jack squat to a man who is about to suicide and who wants to take others with him.

Go back to Columbine. There was a law against minors posessing firearms – numerous laws. There were laws against manufacturing explosive devices. There were laws against taking those things to school. There were metal detectors at the door to screen unwanted items. There were two security guards standing there at the door. Of course, the two killers knew that – but they also knew that the security guards were required to be unarmed. Since the killers were not concerned with breaking laws they just marched in, shot the guards and kept going. They knew there would be no one capable of resisting them, thanks to school policies, state law and federal law.

A contrasting scenario would be the school shootings in Pearl, Mississippi in 1997. It was planned to be another Columbine – only this time, the school principal illegally had a .45 pistol in his car which he used to stop the shooter.

Even though the simple solution would be to offer deterent – whether in the form of armed police or security (which some schools do have) on hand at all times, or allowing teachers to become trained & authorized to clandestinely make use of a concealed weapons permit – you know as well as I do that we as a society won’t do it. We’d rather have these tragedies than use common sense. Look at our local schools here in DFW, which hired off duty police for security but then protested and required that they be unarmed while working. Idiocy.

I find it very ironic that only 30 years ago, kids could carry rifles to school for shooting sports and yet we never had the type of incidents we so fear today. Not even half that long ago, kids in my high school had rifles in their cars and no one ever used them or made threats with them.

We as a generation have been programmed to think the answer is to comply, do as your told and wait for help. Instead of the self sufficiency that made America great, we’ve been told to sit still and outsource self protection. We’ve been told that being good little captives will get us to safety – just do what you’re told.

But use some COMMON SENSE. The 9/11 hijackings showed us that compliance doesn’t bring safety. All of these school attacks have shown us that laws don’t stop criminals, and that compliance with mass murderers doesn’t lead to safety – they don’t want anything but to terrorize & kill and we give them the places to do it.

Even Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (notoriously anti-gun) agrees - today he acknowledged that even stronger gun laws could not have prevented the horrible shooting at the Amish school. His words: “You can make all the changes you want, but you can never stop a random act of violence by someone intent on taking his own life.”

When talking about ensuring that our kids have no one to protect them while at school, THINK: what is it one of these mass-murdering scumbags needs to succeed? What can we as a society do to make sure he is met by something other than what he wants or expects?