Every day is a normal day, until it's not.

Attribution: By Steve Rainwater from Irving, US - img_5566, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56827044

Yesterday, another school shooting.
17 people died.
AR-15 Style Rifle was used.
Shooter is a 19 year old white male with mental health issues.

So many thoughts.

1. "another school shooting"...the fact that there are so many it's hard to keep track of them all is outrageous.
2. "another school shooting"...at a school.  A school for goodness sake. A movie theater, a church, a nightclub, the office. 
3. "17 people died" - what kind of trauma does that create in a whole generation of children/teenagers/adults?  I'm fortunate.  I complain even still.  What if this had happened in my life?  I can't imagine.
Heartbreaking. 
4. "AR-15" - an assault rifle the NRA supports and defends.  Who needs an ASSAULT rifle??? The NRA is the enemy of a free, peaceful, safe, United States.  They are cynical, manipulative, cunning, and care only about guns...they don't care about the United States of America.  They are a scourge. They twisted things around so people who support the NRA think they're supporting Freedom in America. 
I hope people will stop voting for candidates who support or accept funds from the NRA. 
5. "mental health issues" - we have GOT to get better dealing with mental health issues.  We ignore it and hope it goes away and give only a small amount of money.  The most horrible President in the history of the United States, Donald Trump, wants to spend more than 30 million dollars on a military parade for himself this year.  Maybe he should consider using that money for mental health issues instead.

I get it, these are tricky issues.  Right to privacy, freedom to choose, second amendment.
But, we're out of control right now.
Reasonable and common sense notions are thrown out the window because of partisan adherence to partisan principles that kill people.  One way or another.

Our government policies are determining the world we live in.
The current policies are not working to create a safe, equal opportunity, environment for all.
I don't blame the current administration entirely - though they are going backward on any progress we've made in these areas - but, really...mental health is not considered a primary focus for spending. And we allow the NRA to run roughshod over everything. 

Reasoned Compassion. Let's put some thought into things and have a little compassion for people who aren't exactly like us.
That's what we need.

Here are some articles on the side issue of NRA funded lawmakers and their 'Thoughts and Prayers' tweets:

Thoughts and Prayers and NRA Funding (opinion from NYTimes)

Bess Kalb, Jimmy Kimmel writer is tweet-sponding to the Thoughts and Prayers tweets of lawmakers.

And here are some articles in the wake of yesterday's Valentine's Day shooting in Florida

From The Guardian: How many US School shootings have there been in 2018 so far?

From the NYT

From the Washington Post