How or where do I begin?? What is wrong with our world?? It’s become so very sad and disturbing! It’s
as if, as a society, we talk about school shootings as normal news. Unfortunately, it seems to be happening more
often than it should, maybe that’s why.
It’s like we talk about the shooting for a day or two, new news comes
along, it’s forgotten until another one even worse happens. How do we get this to end???
Let’s start with guns!
If you know me, you know that I’m not a huge fan of guns! I don’t have a
problem with them, I just don’t choose to own one. I think that if you choose to own one, be
responsible with it. Keep it locked and
out of the reach of children. Don’t
flaunt it around like it’s a toy or as if it makes you tough or cool. Teach your children gun safety and what/why
guns are used. Let me be very clear, I
believe that Guns are NOT our problem.
They add to our problem and we need to address the “owning a gun”
process, but they are NOT “the” problem.
Mental Illness IS our problem and it needs to be addressed
immediately!! These children are sick,
disturbed, sad and need our help. Almost
all of the children who have committed these horrific school shootings were
showing signs of mental illness way before these events occurred. These children were described as loners,
weird, outcasts, etc. These descriptions add to
our problem as a society. We label
people and post it all over the internet and expect humans not to have feelings
and to be able to ignore it. But, we are
human, we have feelings. These feelings
can only be hidden/masked for so long, then they come to the surface.
Eventually, they affect who you are and your actions, if not addressed!
Unfortunately, with Facebook/Instagram/Twitter, if someone says something bad
about someone, it’s there forever for everyone to see. It’s not like in the old days where you
talked bad about someone and the next day it went away, now we have it in
writing for all to see!
We also tend to act like we don’t care what other people
think of us, but that is so far from the truth.
We do care. We want people to
like us, to accept us and to be our friend, that’s human nature. We want to be wanted, everyone does!
We, as a society, treat Mental Illness like the plague. We talk about people and say they are “crazy”,
“psycho” & “weird”, but we don’t offer any ways to get help or fix these
issues!! Their brain is “broken” and needs to be fixed.
Have you ever tried making an appointment for
a psychologist or psychiatrist? I
have!!! First, you have to make an appointment
with your primary care. Once they
confirm there is an issue, you will then be referred to the specialist, this
appointment usually takes weeks, even months to get in to…and that’s if you’re
an adult and have insurance! Now, imagine
you are 12, 15, 17 years old, would you have the knowledge to call all these
doctors, be able to talk yourself through these thoughts and “wait” to get into
the doctor. NO!! Kids don’t have that mind set, everything is
RIGHT NOW!! So, if help isn’t there,
they feel the world is over and the cycle begins!! They need something the moment when things
just don’t seem “right!” There needs to be access to these doctors, everywhere,
at all times!
We need to make these resources readily and immediately available!! It needs to be something that kids have easy
access to, whether at school or at home!
We have commercials all over TV, billboards, magazines, & Facebook
about Stopping Smoking, we need to do the same for mental illness. We need to have hotlines, free clinics,
access to help!! This needs to be in schools,
YMCA’s, clubs, etc! We need to give these kids a chance to get
better and be better.
Many of the children who committed these crimes have none or
very little parent presence in their lives. They have never felt LOVE! Can YOU
imagine how that would feel? Would life
matter to you if you felt that YOU didn’t matter to anyone else? These kids are not sitting down with their parents at night for dinner and talking about their day. They aren’t spending the weekends doing
family activities and feeling loved.
Most of them have been left to raise themselves from a very young age. They’ve had tortured childhoods that have
finally caught up with them. They have
always felt like an outcast and felt as if their life never mattered to begin
with. This is a very sad cycle that
needs to be addressed immediately. It
will not go away until we rid ourselves of the stigma of mental illness.
I’m not blind to the fact that there are horrible/evil
people in this world, but I also know that many of them are created by our
society. I can’t believe that there are
this many horrible/evil people that were born this way.
I hope and pray that we can find a way to fix this, sooner
rather than later. Our children should
feel secure and safe when going to school.
It’s something they should look forward to and enjoy. Us as parents should not feel this sense of worry when we drop our kids off at school. Our
world has changed and it’s our job to change it back. Let’s get back to the good ol’ days.
