So this is Christmas ... and what have you done?

6 years ago I posted this caption, and I still stand by every word. Has it gotten any better?

This week, we are going to bury a family member that lived a long, full life. A few weeks ago, my daughter attended a funeral for a school friend that took her own life. It was her choice, and I wish she had tried to find help, but it the end, it was her choice. Each year, more and more teens will never get that chance to lead a productive life .. and they had no say in the matter.

Do I think the situation is any better now than 6 years ago? Probably not, and we have become even more desensitized to it. Watch a recent episode of South Park to drive that point across. Federal investigators tell us that a foreign power donated a bunch of money to a lobbying group so we can keep destroying ourselves, bit by bit, from within. Kill the roots, and the tree will die.

So far this holiday season, we've been lucky so far, or maybe perhaps I missed something in the news because it's so commonplace it just registers a blip on the cultural radar. Lets hope we escape with no more losses of life this way, and that it extends far into the future. It's still my Christmas wish.

So what did I write 6 years ago to accompany this TG caption in regards to Sandy Hook, a town a few miles away from my girlfriend's childhood home?

I've been trying to bend my mind around the Newtown tragedy. We have relatives in that area, and it is just heartbreaking to know there are so many presents underneath a tree that will never be opened, and lives that will never be lived the way they were supposed to be lived. 

I know people that are big time gun aficionados and some that are extremely anti-gun. I fall somewhere in the middle, but there just HAS to be something done that can satisfy both sides and stop innocent people from being in harm's way. The way violence is ingrained into our society is alarming at best, and I wonder if THIS is the final straw that gets people talking about responsible and TRUE control of our arsenal of weaponry. I thought that "The person with the bigger gun, bomb, etc .. wins" mentality went out with the end of the cold war, but it still persists. The rest of the world must wonder why these things continue to happen ... as do I. 

I NEVER want to hear about something like this ever happening again. That is MY Christmas wish. 

"War is over .. if you want it." Words of wisdom from a man who had his life taken away from him by a gun. "Nothing to kill or die for ... Imagine all the people living life in peace." It really shouldn't be so fucking hard to imagine that, right?

I just looked it up and some asshole called in a bomb scare to the Sandy Hook Elementary School on the anniversary of the shootings 2 days ago. This isn't the world that my relative thought she'd be leaving to us, of that I'm quite sure. 

And if you know someone that is having issues, please don't ignore it and hope it gets better. Try to get them the help they need before things get worse. The difference could be just one helping hand to take a finger off a trigger. Arms should be for holding one another in peace.