There's been another tragic mass shooting and once again we're all inundated with the articles, news shows, blog commentary and Facebook posts about gun control. Statistics are popping up everywhere. The guns laws versus mass shooting in other countries. The number of people killed in mass shootings per year in the United States. The illegal guns in crime versus the legal guns. I'm watching the heated debate play out between friends in social media.
From our president to the moms at school pickup, this is all anyone can talk about and it makes my heart ache, because everyone is missing the point.
Why is that all we ever talk about when these shocking incidents occur? Why aren't we discussing the real issue? Why are we ignoring the fact that mental illness is on the rise in our country? That we are a nation of people who are losing our grasp on sanity? Instead of constantly debating the access to guns, why aren't we trying to figure out how to prevent people from getting to the point that they have so much rage and lack of empathy that this is what they resort to? We are a society that puts very little value on the importance of mental health and the concept of prevention is completely ignored. To give you an example; Psychologists make, on average, $88,482 a year. A plastic surgeon makes, on average, $355,585 a year. Therapy is still considered taboo and life coping skills are not in the curriculum in our public schools. More and more people are lost, hurting, hopeless, and angry with no where to turn. Its so bad that a term has been coined; "the teacup generation". A generation of people who shatter the moment anything goes wrong. As a whole, we have lost our ability to cope with adversity and if we don't find a way to fix it, things are just going to continue to get worse.
I don't pretend to have all the answers. God knows I wish I did. I do know that we are fighting this from the wrong end. You can't wait until after tragedy strikes to cry out about the guns. The answer isn't to arm our teachers, either. You have to start before. We have to rethink how we are raising our children and how we are treating our fellow adults. Lets go back to preschool. How do we teach empathy? How do we teach self control? How do we place value on self assessment and how do we break down the social stigma of getting help?
We are hurting, we are bleeding, and we are scared. But there is always hope and there is always love. I am praying we find a way to love ourselves and the hurting people around us. Its time to start talking about the real issue and how we are going to fix it.
I don't pretend to have all the answers. God knows I wish I did. I do know that we are fighting this from the wrong end. You can't wait until after tragedy strikes to cry out about the guns. The answer isn't to arm our teachers, either. You have to start before. We have to rethink how we are raising our children and how we are treating our fellow adults. Lets go back to preschool. How do we teach empathy? How do we teach self control? How do we place value on self assessment and how do we break down the social stigma of getting help?
We are hurting, we are bleeding, and we are scared. But there is always hope and there is always love. I am praying we find a way to love ourselves and the hurting people around us. Its time to start talking about the real issue and how we are going to fix it.
Sweat and Smile. Because that's how *I* cope.
***** I will not entertain the gun control debate. If you try to continue it here, I will delete your comments.
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