It's Hard

The last few days have been extremely hard. The shooting spree at Virgina Tech is incomprehensible. The 80 people dead today in Baghdad is incomprehensible. Knowing that a soldier is going to die this week far away from his or her family and community is gut wrenching.

I don't know how to express my grief properly. The death and destruction is a reality I don't want to deal with.

I know as a country, we have to choose a different path. We cannot teach our children to glamorize violence. We cannot excuse our own love of violence and uber competitiveness.

The consequences are too high.

The moral imperative needs to be to stop institutionalizing violence. period.

More guns will not solve our problems. Sanctioning a "good guy" vs. "bad guy" paradigm will not stop violence.

Compassion will help. Strengthening our prevention programs regarding mental heath will help.

We need a cultural shift in our country. Unfortunately it will never keep us completely safe from insane people. Life is scary. But the amount of killing and destruction can be lessened.

But we cannot expect this happen without each of us standing up and doing our part.

The consequences are too high.

The deaths of brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers are breaking our hearts and our souls.

Peace.