I’ve been thinking a lot about the school shooting and  all the powerful and divided words of everyone in the media and here on blogs, Facebook and such, and I find myself seeing some good, some bad and much ugly in the various reasonings and questions and blame to such a tragedy.

I am a history buff, and so many of my opinions come from examples in history… and sorry folks, but we’ve been bad to fellow man from the get go. There just isn’t a real good litmus test to who is gonna snap and who is not.

I am a Christian, but I don’t think that extreme religious involvement would have meant a darn thing… Any country that “forces” one religion onto it’s citizens usually ends up with terrible situations against the marginal religions/non-religious outsiders.. you can look to the Middle Eastern countries to see how well that works.

I am a homeschooling mom, and though that was the right choice for our children, it’s not for everyone and I totally understand that. However, I fear whenever you group huge amounts of innocent people in large institutional settings, you leave them vulnerable as targets for madmen. And you also open up more opportunities for children to not “fit in” and be bullied, or slip past the watchdogs. Granted, you also give teachers and administrators a chance to help those that do get “discovered” and might not have gotten the help they needed in a smaller setting. There are so many pros and cons to all situations, no easy answer.

I am a homesteader, and I believe that we have the right to own and use guns for the things they were intended. To hunt, to use for defense, to enjoy as a sport such as target shooting or historical firearms. I also believe that assault weapons have no good reason or place in these rights. I have yet to see or hear of any well trained hunter/enthusiast wanting to plow down a deer with 120 bullets a minute. My gosh, where’s the sport in that? (And who wants to pick all that metal out of the meat when you’re done?) I believe that we should ban the import of these weapons. And I think some of these incredibly paid sports stars, movie stars and other insanely rich individuals could help so much more by offering to buy and destroy existing assault weapons then staging concerts. If I could trade in some assault rifle for a thousand bucks, and make a house payment or buy something to help my family, that would be a no brainer. Get these things off the streets.

I am a human, and I have been touched with mental issues in my family, myself and even my own child. It is so easy to point and say we should have more institutions, and more safety checks and ways for people to get help. But having been through the ‘system’ with my daughter and her autism, let me tell you, it’s a battle at times. You have to constantly be an advocate for your child’s care and not all people understand or have the capacity to follow through when they feel something is not right or not working with their loved ones care. There is no one size fits all for mental health issues. Locking them up is just another opportunity for failures in routine and care, not to mention a nightmare in determining the benchmarks for what is just quirky behavior and what is true mental illness. Medicating with drugs can have good and bad effects. And our insurance situation in this country is troubling at the least. It’s hard to know what to do and where to turn with the mountains of paperwork and appointments and schedules that you are presented with, just for a marginal issue. I can not imagine how it might be with a severely handicapped or mentally challenged family member.

And last and perhaps most importantly, I am a mother, and I can not even imagine how any of these parents feel, of any of these mass shootings, how tragic it is. The pictures of the little children, the memorials, the outpouring of grief is too hard to bare. But doesn’t that mean any parent that looses a child to a tragic end is somehow less eligible to our sympathy? Car accidents, drownings, illness, diseases and medical mistakes, even our food supply… all can claim innocent lives before they have a chance to flower and grow. Any death before it’s time is sad and unfortunately, part of life. When I read about our not so very distant past, I hear the sadness of families where sickness and disease claims half of the children born, or where in so many countries, still, today, reaching 5 years of age is a miracle. We need to start doing better in so many arenas. And we can…

Well, I had to get my two cents out, just had to write some of the tangle of feelings, emotions, and hard thoughts that have been rolling around in my head. I know that my words will not ring true to many people and I think that should be a good thing. Because we have minds and can think and can come to the decisions that suit us. But I think I have touched on a few things, that I haven’t seen much talk about. Maybe my time and thoughts might stir a few other thoughts and words. And actions.

-Sherri…