America is looking like a war zone with rioting, children murdered in their homes, and illegal guns and drugs flowing like rivers down our city streets. The California I grew up in no longer boasts about sunny shores and national parks. Yesterday, San Jose was the latest city to report a mass murder with 9 people being killed at their place of work. As of April 30 (the first four months of 2021), 178 mass shootings fit the Mass Shooting Tracker project criterion, leaving 206 people dead and 693 injured, for a total of 899 total victims, some including the shooter(s). It seems we have another pandemic on our hands that may mirror the deaths of 2020 if we don't get a handle on it quick.
WHY are we tolerating this? A friend of mine told me most of us are fearfully sitting at home addicted to watching the news as if it were "fear porn." I think this is a perfect way to express why we are allowing chaos to continue in the streets. Everything I hear on the news is focused on gloom and doom, hate, and greed. Fear has our children cowering in the corner of their rooms, tuning out, and committing suicide at alarming rates. When the 2020 Corona Virus pandemic first started, the world became fixated on the possibility of death and everyone was terrified. The world looked to its leaders to find solutions. Many used the pandemic to expand their control, destruction, and blame. Hate became the method of progress and a blind eye was turned away from the truth as we locked ourselves in our homes trying to survive. While the good people of the nation were paralyzed in fear, evil and greed walked the streets unabated. We are still locking ourselves in our homes today not because of a virus, but now because of the mass killings that have become the norm. We tolerated schools shootings and didn't resolve that problem, and now our children who grew up in fear of going to school are scared of dying in the workplace.
Is it the guns that are killing people or the people who have mental illness using guns to kill? Remember, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people and children with a truck loaded with cow manure. When someone is hellbent on killing they will use whatever means are available because it's the illness that is killing not the tool that is being used. We need to focus on the root cause of the problem: why are people feeling the only way to deal with anger, disappointment, fear, and rejection is to kill? How can we bring peace back to the minds of the masses and calm back to our streets? First, we have to step away from the fear porn and focus on what what we can do to bring home calm and peace. Take care of your family first, your neighborhood second, and your livelihood third. Reject reliance and seek independence as that is where strength is. Reject fear and instead live fearless as that is where courage is. Reject lies and seek truth as that is where wisdom is. Finally, choose faith over chaos as that is where God is.