Scary Day Today

Today there was an assassination attempt in Arizona. Six people were killed, including a nine year old girl. At least as many more were injured, including a Congresswoman, who was the target. This is the first assassination attempt I can recall in my life. I was alive when Reagan was shot, however I was too young to have been affected by it. Today was scary. It makes you stop to think about the actions you take in your life. Do I go to that rally or do I just stay home? It's safer at home after all...But as with terrorism, if we alter our lives because of what people living their lives on the fringe do, then they've won. They've accomplished what they set out to accomplish. I cannot grant people like that to have that control over me.

And this isn't about Republican/Conservative vs. Democrat/Liberal. It isn't about guns and gun control. Just this week another horrifying act of violence took the lives of several people involving only gasoline and a blow torch. This is about fear and anger and acting out on that. When a person lets that fear take over their life, hiding the guns won't stop them.

If you look throughout history, at times when assassinations take place in our country, most of them happen during times of great turbulence and social change. It is an unfortunate sign that our country is moving in the right direction, and there are those who are terrified and cannot handle it, so they lash out violently. Perhaps they think they are the only ones who see what's really happening and it's up to them to stop it. I can't presume to understand what goes on inside their minds.

This is a time when I have to remind myself that we live in a country that allots us the freedom to hold differing political opinions, and thought processes. It would be nice if the inhabitants could remember this too...Let us continue to hold our opposing thoughts, because this is how we have always been and always shall be. But let us also be civil to one another, and honorable in our actions, because that is where change for the better comes from.