WTH?

What part of a well regulated militia was the shooter

in an elementary school in Texas yesterday?

 

Or in Buffalo 

in a supermarket last week?

That criteria is, after all, what the second amendment calls for:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,

the right of the people to keep and bear arms

shall not be infringed."

But apparently its ok for

 predominantly white males to infringe the hell out of all women

in every state

by telling them what to do with their uterus's?

Never mind that it takes a males participation to put a product of conception

in said uterus...

let's not pay attention to that biological fact though. 

Again, predominantly male

Legislators pass bills that, in effect,

state any pissed off, mentally unbalanced person who wants a gun

can buy one (in TX) with NO waiting time, lessons or background checks.

And, they can carry them anywhere - with no restrictions (MO). 

WTH??

A good friend who died a decade ago,

WAAYY before those of us who loved him 

were ready to say Good bye

believed that as we age, we HAVE to think the world around us

is going to hell in a hand basket;

if we didn't, we'd never be prepared to relinquish our spot on earth.

 

It's easier to die if you think there's more to gain there is to lose.

Maybe, Andy...

but for those of us who are still here and struggling

for some understanding and sanity,

for those of us who have grandchildren heading off to school 

and are terrified 

there will come a day when they might not make it home,

this country is SO far off the mark as to be

unrecognizable.

I was playing with paper earlier this week,

doing a piece that honored the indigenous children who died,

or went missing,

when they were kidnapped by the government 

and sent to residential schools throughout the United States 

and Canada.

 

So, its not like an atrocity within schools 

hasn't ever happened before.

The regularity though with which it happens is heartbreaking.

 

Yesterday, I found a beautiful vintage image of a young girl that I knew

I would use in some project, 

at some point.

 

Today, during a Zoom meeting,

as thoughts of the children and their families in TX were swirling 

in my head,

I used a metallic alcohol marker to turn her hat 

into an aura -

and then used a pin to create points of light

when held up to a window or light source.

How can it be alright that, as a nation,

we're allowing so many children to be killed

by weapons?

 

Generally at the hands of an unstable male.

What in the name of all that's holy are we doing to ourselves -

and to our future?