THE FLAG DROOPED SADLY AT HALF-STAFF
The flag drooped sadly at half-staff as the nation mourned the slaughter of Americans having fun at a country-music concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 1, 2017.
The life-giving blood of 59 concert goers gushed, oozed, and flowed as they lie dying. The horrified ran, hid, protected and aided others as more than 500 women and men were wounded and mowed down like grass on a field oozing blood, crying, screaming, and writhing in pain.
http://www.ktnv.com/news/photos-remembering-those-killed-in-las-vegas-mass-shooting#id0
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-las-vegas-shootings-victims-list-20171002/
Please look at the photos of the massacred.
All across town, the downcast flags told the story of another hideous mass murder. As she drives past a Catholic school, a crew is placing white, wooden crosses on the lawn—symbols for the unborn.
Where, she asks, are the white crosses for those slaughtered by a gun? Where are the white crosses for all the blood spewed by the 30,000 who die each year by guns? Where are the white crosses for the millions who are wounded and/or intimidated by gun violence? Did they run out of wood or white paint? Or aren’t the lives of 30,000 innocent people worth the effort?
Perhaps, rifles, machine guns, hand guns should be displayed on the lawns of these churches—one for each child, woman, and man whose life blood flowed from their wounds.
The despondent flag has flown at half-staff more times than she can count as the bodies are buried by grieving, unbelieving families.
Twenty first graders slaughtered in their classroom—some of them beyond recognition. Six staff members wiped out by a spray of bullets. Others at Sandy Hook Elementary School protected others and did what they could to save a life or that of their own.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2012/dec/16/sandy-hook-shooting-victims-pictures Please look at these photos of the 26 victims massacred at Sandy Hook.
Over and over the scene of horror—like a movie—is repeated:
*** In schools: Columbine; Umpqua Community College; Santa Monica College; Oikos University; University of Alabama; Northern Illinois University; Virginia Tech; University of Arizona; Santana High School; Lindhurst High School; University of Iowa; an Amish school in Nickel Mines, PA; Red Lake High School in Minnesota; a middle school in Jonesboro, Ark; on a school playground in Stockton, California.
***In churches: Emmanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, S.C.; Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin; Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
***In shopping malls, restaurants, and other businesses: Omaha; Burlington, Washington; Brookfield, Wisconsin; Seal Beach, California; Salt Lake City; Killeen, Texas; San Ysidro, California.
In movie theatres and dance clubs: Orlando, Florida; Aurora, Colorado.
In the workplace: Orange County, Florida; San Francisco; Minneapolis; Manchester, Conn.; Goleta, California; Meridian, Miss.; Wakefield, Mass.; Honolulu; Atlanta; Jacksonville, Fla; Edmond, Oklahoma.
Military bases with armed personnel are not safe from a madman with a gun: Chattanooga, Tenn.; Washington. D.C.; Fort Hood, Texas witnessed two difference mass shootings—one April 2, 2014 and the other on Nov. 5, 2009;
Community Centers are not immune from gun violence: San Bernardino, Calif.; Isla Vista, Calif.; Binghamton, N. Y.
At a meet and greet: Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head; six people died including a young girl and 11 were wounded.
https://www.google.com/search?rls=aso&client=gmail&q=photos%20of%20gabby%20gifford%20&authuser=0
Please see photos of Gabby Giffords.
Police killings were on the rise in 2016.
Just like that after a brief period of mourning, the flags furl from full-staff announcing the end of grieving. The flags in their full glory flap in the breeze in the autumn splendor among the color-laden trees that are in the school yards, along the streets, at businesses. People go about their business as though nothing ever happened.
The moment of silence for 59 more dead victims and hundreds of wounded is long forgotten. The prayers offered by the pious to “God” are empty.
Hold on! Mass murders are profitable for the gun and ammo industry and their shareholders. After mass murders, the sales of guns and ammo go up. Why? Because people are afraid!
And the mass murders are good for the NRA. More money from the gun industry and members means more money flowing into the pockets of Republicans at all levels of government.
The rights of gun owners who choose to slaughter innocent children, women, and men on a daily basis supersedes the rights of all Americans to live free of fear.
Going into a sports arena is just one example that we live in fear of a madman with a gun as the people line up to undergo the “wand” and other measures of security. Surveillance cameras are everywhere recording our every move.
Meanwhile legislators, like Congressman Sean Duffy, and their staff hide behind locked doors with video cameras everywhere.
The pleas of the mourning, grieving families go unheard and fall on deaf, uncaring ears. The prayers offered up to “God” go nowhere. Jim Wallis of Sojourners asks: How many more tears? Obviously, not enough tears have flowed to soften the stone cold hearts of the Republicans who fill their pockets with bribes from the NRA and the gun industry.
Somewhere in the US, a person is planning the next attack–on a child, a woman or a man or it could be another mass murder. And the horror movie will continue to repeat itself over and over again.
https://www.thetrace.org/rounds/las-vegas-mass-shooting-nra-good-guy-with-a-gun/
http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/02/gun-stocks-rise-after-deadly-las-vegas-shooting.html
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2017/10/03/gun-stock-sales-rise.cnnmoney/index.html
https://heedinggodscall.org/content/pfctoolkit-10
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/business/gun-stocks-vegas-shooting-trump.html?_r=0