I can’t take it anymore. I try to stay quiet on issues because I freely admit I don’t know all sides. I don’t understand what it’s like to be a police officer in the line of duty, putting my body between harm and other people’s safety. I don’t know what it’s like to be a minority in this country (Though eventually I know I will become one). I don’t know what the answers to all these questions about life and living are. I don’t know the answer to saving our economy, and I don’t know if Obama is the devil (I doubt it, but people have been misled before). I am pretty sure Trump is the Antichrist, though. I mean, it’ll be confirmed if during his inauguration he rides on a six-headed dragon to put his hand on the bible. I joke, but in all seriousness, I don’t have the answers.
I only know one thing, we need to stop killing each other.
I was thinking today about why I write horror stories. I’m not particularly drawn to them when I read, though I do admit to enjoying a good story no matter the genre. There’s nothing in my life that would really point to me writing in that style.
Except for everyday life.
I see us as a people talking to each other less, listening to each other’s ideas with contempt instead of open ears. We’re not willing to have a civil discourse, and see attacks in only wanting to talk.
But when both sides feel like the other side isn’t listening, who’s being hard headed? I look at some of the scenes I see today in the news and I find myself heartbroken with a lack of answers.
I see the video from a few days ago of a cop shooting a man in the chest at point blank range. I don’t know 100% what was happening in that situation. I don’t know if someone was reaching for a gun. I don’t know how threatened the cop felt, though he appeared in control at the moment. I can tell you of horror stories working in a psych ward with a patient that is so wound up they can’t listen to what I’m saying to them. I can tell you stories of that patient losing control and threatening my wife, my life, my non-existent kids. I can see in the heat of the moment anyone losing control. We are after all human.
The very next day, I see another horror story. This time, a man is shot in front of his wife and child. I really cannot explain this one. I don’t understand at all why the officer felt threatened. It appeared the man was being nothing but cooperative. It makes me sick to see things like this. Things that make me question the safety of my loved ones. Either way, it’s another situation where one side wasn’t listening.
Then the Dallas shooting happened. A man went to a place with armed rifles and started to shoot. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it probably won’t be the last. When it finally comes down to the end, why did he do it? He felt like his cause wasn’t being heard.
There are people ridiculing the police in this situation, upset that they used a bomb to stop an armed assailant from killing more people. Why? I mean, I get that the shooter was upset, and I get you may even get his point of view. But he was the one stupid enough to take it to violence, how can you support that? And if the only reason he stopped was because he was blown up, how can you say that was wrong? He wanted to take innocent lives.
Now this morning I wake up, and I see a story where a young man in St. Louis has decided to go to a police officer’s house and try to break into it, in order to educate him about black lives matters. He was shot, of course. I don’t know what other outcome he expected. I’m still not happy about the situation.
I said it at the start, I’ll say it again.
We need to quit killing each other.
All of these stories are only from my country, a place I used to feel safe in. I knew evil things happened, I understood there was darkness in the shadows. What I don’t understand is the darkness becoming something we seem to accept.
This isn’t mentioning other countries all around the world where this is the norm. Think of the war-torn nations where people are literally having their homes swept from under their feet. Think of the oppressive regimes that seem to proliferate our planet. Everywhere you look there’s something happening to twist your insides into knots.
All this thinking, and I figured out why I write horror. I only need to look at my fellow man to see the monsters that lurk in society. Taking lives for no reason, unwilling to learn to love and listen to one another. There’s a part of my soul that questions whether or not we deserve to be on this wonderful planet, and more and more I find myself slipping to the side of not. Not because of my actions, or of those I love. But because the monsters that hide in our society are being given voice. We’re starting to live by extremes instead of listening to one another.
I don’t understand what happened to our dialogue as a nation, but we need to get it back. I believe I’ve said this before, and I’ll continue to parrot it. Dr. King was brilliant when he said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
We need to stop hating each other and picking sides. We need to start listening to each other and choosing to try and understand the other side.
Understand when someone says black lives matter they aren’t saying your life doesn’t matter. Understand when someone says all lives matter, they’re right! Understand that police officer’s have one of the hardest jobs in this world. Understand that there has been a systematic oppression in this country in the form of a drug war.
Choose to do as Dr. King would ask, choose to love your fellow man and listen to him. Choose to speak to him with civilized discourse. Don’t yell, don’t lose control. Remember the words of John Lennon in this instance, “When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”
When you get angry you give all the control to the system. You make it easier for them to manipulate you. Don’t fight the system with violence, it’ll get you nowhere.
I have to say it one last time, I hope with repetition it will become a life lesson we all learn and pass on to other generations.
We need to stop killing each other.
Sumo Sized Ginger 