Today the highlight of my day was a conversation with the FedEx driver delivering a package to my address. I greet everyone I meet with what I call big talk and ask "What is your dream?" In under a minute you can make a meaningful connection with a total stranger. This young (39 years old) man's dream is to eliminate violence in our world. Of course, the conversation went to the shooting in Uvalde, a town I have visited only an hour's drive away from where we were. I was a little surprised to find he was very progressive and totally agreed about need gun safety laws and with women's and gay rights should be protected. So I asked him if others of his age and under felt the same way and again he said yes. We talked about the need for the younger generations to vote. He said many young people don't care about voting; they don't understand what difference it would make in their lives. We also agreed on the media being a problem. We agreed that now is the time for action and to encourage young people to vote. We, the People, all of us this time.
Another good technique is rather than the perfunctory "How are you?" ask "What is the best thing that has happened to you today or since the last time we met?" It gets people thinking about what they have to be grateful for. Always a good exercise for all of us. I've also used "What is the most important thing that's ever happened to you in your life?" to begin amazing conversations!
It's amazing to watch a person's eyes light up when they are thinking about their dream. that's my reward. My favorite answer is "I'm living my dream." No matter what the dream I encourage them to go fulfill it and ask them what steps they are taking now to achieve it.
💙 “ I greet everyone I meet with what I call big talk and ask "What is your dream?" In under a minute you can make a meaningful connection with a total stranger.”
My main reward is watching people's eyes light up when they are thinking of their dream. Famous doesn't matter to me but do hope to be influential. There is so much loneliness in so many people's lives. Even one person making a meaningful connection could change that other person's life. Let's keep sowing seeds and hope they find fertile grow to thrive in.
I disagree with the individual who says March for Our Lives is a waste of energy. I do think that it needs to be coupled with registering to vote and actually voting: Up and down ballot. The abysmal behaviour of the Uvalde mayor, at the sad news conference, should remain in the back of the minds of all who lost a loved one. This is even more true of the Governor and Senator Cruz.
I haven't read the reader's comment yet, but I will say this: The Women's March may not have resulted in concrete legislative change. But it changed the lives of tens of millions of Americans who participated in the marches. We need to change ourselves.
I was part of a large team of workers registering people to vote at the first March for Our Lives in D.C. for Moms Demand Action. Kevin Duran‘s mom spoke at the training session before the March. Personally, I registered 4 young voters and set up one from Hawaii to register when she got home. I’ve already signed up for this March.
Isaiah 1:15 totally applies to this gun violence situation. So too does an essay I read that said the Republicans are practicing child sacrifice by refusing to address gun violence.
Jenn. what you say is true. A very hard truth that we must recognize. Republicans in Congress and state legislatures believe that the mass deaths of children is acceptable collateral damage.
I want to here (and elsewhere) express my concern and compassion, yes, for this week's shooting, which wakes me in the middle of the night, but today, even more for last week's shooting for the in some ways already forgotten Black dead, their families, friends, caregivers, and communities from last week's shooting by an 18 year old community college freshman who drove 200 miles to kill all the Black people he thought he could, in some ways now shadowed by the little children shot by an 18 year old high school senior, who drove maybe two miles to kill fourth graders of his own ethnic background. EIGHTEEN--adolescent, though legally adult.
Yes, a serious mental health problem. We need more staff in college counseling centers, in high schools, in elementary schools. We also need more free parenting classes, more mental health training for pastors, and more childcare for single teenage parents. And more food stamps.
AND we need gun control and bullet control in a country increasingly divided by fear, bitterness and hate. To borrow from the motto of the American Himalayan Foundation, we all need to be kind, do good, and have fun. Myself, a retired clinical psychologist, today I heard from a former patient who survived a college shooting, one retraumatized many times in the years that I saw him. He wondered if/what to say to his first child, soon to finish kindergarten. He doesn't want them to be afraid to go to school.
Yes, it is time for action. Today I think of the title of a book I've never read, Cry My Beloved Country, written by Alan Patton about South Africa.
Carol, you are absolutely right. Buffalo and Uvalde are not different, and our outrage should reach both in equal measure. I listed Buffalo in the "ghoulish victories" that Republicans had already declared because it has begun to fade from the news. We cannot let that happen.
I was in my way to the grocery store a couple of miles from my house. I was wondering if it was safe for me to go there after that godawful Walmart massacre and now the horrendous Buffalo massacre. Then I heard on the radio about the massacre of those precious kids in Texas. My R senators will not do ANYTHING to stop this violence.
MaryPat, I am someone who disagrees with the SCOTUS ruling on the Second Amendment. They danced around the "militia" component by quibbling with the placement of the comma and concluded that everyone has the right to arm themselves.
I am far from a constitutional scholar, but the original intention was to enable American revolutionaries to form a militia in order to prevent foreign domination and suppression. They did just that: The National Guard. There is no longer a need for misinterpreting the amendment. Some say it can be removed.
The cult and mythos of modern weapons in the hands of citizens is very, very misplaced. I ask myself, when did any private citizen come to the aid of a school or church to stop a fool with an AK-whatever? How likely are they to come together to form their own militia in the face of governmental arsenals?
That's been my thought as well, Carol, about the forgotten in Buffalo. The only equalizer (or whatever term can be sadly used), is that in reporting the Buffalo event and expressing horror at the new fear at grocery stores, the press seemed to have totally forgotten the Boulder grocery store massacre (my nieces missed being there by seconds, it was their destination, but cop cars were flying into parking lot). The other is ageism, Buffalo being older folks, and Uvalde being children. Probably combination. It's all so pathetic: all lives have value.
The death of young children meat-grinds our inner instincts to protect our offspring even if our instinctive defense could mean our own death. That is the true definition of parenthood. Despite my own experiences as a first responder for 26 years and once witnessing a beautiful 14-year-old Cuban-American girl dead in her bed with a self-inflicted pistol hole in her scalp, her eyes wide-open in death. She was the same age as my own Theresa; when I returned to the station I immediately called Nancy to ask if Theresa was ok. But I never had to enter a classroom filled with bodies of children, even younger dead and as Chris describes. So, too, besides the kids dying in fear-filled horror and the anguish and rage of those parents is the effect this has had and will upon those Border Patrol Officers, those Deputies, Police Officers, Paramedics, EMTs, Ambulance Attendants and all the Doctors, Nurses and other Emergency Room Persons. How many of them have children and grandchildren and called home right after because what they saw struck their inner instincts as parents because they are human, unlike the Simians we have elected to represent us in government.
-RC Silvestri. Ft Pierce, FL
On May 27, 2022, at 5:53 AM, chris englund wrote:
The bullets of assault rifles are designed to tumble once they penetrate flesh , a meat grinder . Surgeons say the child victims are often unrecognizable .
Only in America does the massacre of children elicit calls for more guns .
Thank you for sharing your moving experience. And you raise a good point: ammunition. No one needs 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and no one needs a "tumbling bullet" or "exploding bullet" to kill a deer. Those rounds are designed to kill people. Regulating ammunition sales, type, characteristics should be part of gun control.
As one pundit noted,prayer,religion,God will not stop gun violence.Neither will a break or remembrances of those who perished.We need ACTION.Since politics will not permit outlawing of guns,let's do something-100% background checks,banning assault rifles is the bare minimum.We should have a massive march on DC banning gun violence.
I cannot recall the forum on which I read the post, but someone suggested making gun purchases as difficult to accomplish as it is to obtain an abortion. Food for thought.
Here is another good response for the thoughts and prayers crowd. We were reminded this week by Nelba Marquez Greene, mother of Grace, who was murdered at Sandy Hook: "Faith without works is dead" ~James 2:26.
Bipartisan option for a quick solution ?? Require military style weapons to be held under lock & key at a gun range for controlled target practice but not in your home. Gun shop owners may support this as it would be income for them and expand their business. Men own these guns likely because of video games using military style weapons to kill people. If they have the $ to buy a gun, they want to use it somewhere. Mental health disorders are not gender specific!!!! Mass shooting are done by men. We need to find the cause and solution for angry men at the core of these shootings.
In the ancient Roman Senate for 20 years Cato repeated “Carthage must be destroyed.” Ignoring his call for genocide and culture eliminating war, his consistent, undeterred message became reality. Rome buried Carthage. We must do the same if it takes “until Hell freezes over” to quote Adlai Stevenson. Repeal the 2nd Amendment! Anything less is futile.
Beau of the Fifth Column has proposed a potential solution. Some of the facts he stated stunned me but we should encourage our representatives to consider this https://youtu.be/g5g7OE3REME
We are “mistakenly” addressing the weapon (type, size, availability) The facts he presented about numbers astounded me. Rather, address the person behind the weapon. 60% are perpetrators of domestic violence and if you add animal cruelty, you can nearly eliminate the type of person likely to commit these acts.
Thanks, Carla ! Also, well-documented the fatalities of law enforcement officers when responding to domestic violence calls.
Senate recently reauthorized Violence Against Women Act although there is the “boyfriend loophole”. Convicted spouses can’t access firearms but allows others (dating partners, acquaintances..)
As a former DV victim advocate, I can tell you many perpetrators are not spouses. Also, many are well-connected, wealthy members of the community.
IMO, we need to address weapons, DV, mental health…+++Here in Florida(sigh) our Republican Senators claim it’s a “ mental health issue”. So please explain why Florida’s Board of Education recently discontinued CDC’s time-tested Youth Risk Behavior Survey given to our teens???
If you watched the first video I posted, I promise you, the number of weapons in this country, I would venture to say, exceeds population. Beau addressed your concerns today https://youtu.be/FxOjnCs6ykA. The amendment as it stands, is worthless because of the loopholes. They all need to be eliminated.
That mental health issue “talking point” they like to throw around makes my blood boil. While I agree that is an element (observe : domestic violence and animal cruelty are both mental health issues) and yet, nobody wants to address it by funding it in any significant way.
The March for our Lives is unfortunately a waste of energy. Mobilize people to get folks registered to vote and then make sure they actually follow through in November. Vote the sleaze bags out of office. It’s the only path forward.
Hi, Theo. I disagree. The Women's March in 2017 did not result in concrete change. But it converted millions of Americans into activists, which allowed us to flip the House in 2018 and the SEnate in 2020. Marching changes us.
Realistic pessimist that I am, I think this time may be different because there is a level of outrage expressed by people in media, in entertainment, in sports etc. that I haven't seen before. Now we need the Republican Senators to realize that when we say "enough is enough" we're counting on them to finally do something!
There is a handy dandy article in the New York Times today listing every Republican Senator’s position on gun control. Let’s each keep it next to our computers and tweet, post, email etc every day for the next few weeks asking them to revive the ban on assault rifles and pass new legislation strengthening background checks.
My earlier comment about maintaining a list of R positions is intended to help go on the offensive. We shouldn’t just wring our hands and talk to each other about R heartlessness. Let’s attack, in words that will resonate with moderates. Other topics include:
Interference with 1/6 committee
Attempt to get officials in Georgia, Arizona and elsewhere to change voting results
Ambiguous relationship with Putin/Russia (here I would cite Tucker Carlson as well as Trump)
Attempt to bribe Zelensky - Biden investigation for weapons
I think the relationship with Putin is not ambiguous at all. I think the R’s led by tRump are very supportive of Putin. I never thought I would see such a day!
Today the highlight of my day was a conversation with the FedEx driver delivering a package to my address. I greet everyone I meet with what I call big talk and ask "What is your dream?" In under a minute you can make a meaningful connection with a total stranger. This young (39 years old) man's dream is to eliminate violence in our world. Of course, the conversation went to the shooting in Uvalde, a town I have visited only an hour's drive away from where we were. I was a little surprised to find he was very progressive and totally agreed about need gun safety laws and with women's and gay rights should be protected. So I asked him if others of his age and under felt the same way and again he said yes. We talked about the need for the younger generations to vote. He said many young people don't care about voting; they don't understand what difference it would make in their lives. We also agreed on the media being a problem. We agreed that now is the time for action and to encourage young people to vote. We, the People, all of us this time.
This is so heartening. Thank you, but even more thanks for your “stranger greeting”— what is your dream? Worth trying, for sure.
Another good technique is rather than the perfunctory "How are you?" ask "What is the best thing that has happened to you today or since the last time we met?" It gets people thinking about what they have to be grateful for. Always a good exercise for all of us. I've also used "What is the most important thing that's ever happened to you in your life?" to begin amazing conversations!
It's amazing to watch a person's eyes light up when they are thinking about their dream. that's my reward. My favorite answer is "I'm living my dream." No matter what the dream I encourage them to go fulfill it and ask them what steps they are taking now to achieve it.
💙 “ I greet everyone I meet with what I call big talk and ask "What is your dream?" In under a minute you can make a meaningful connection with a total stranger.”
Connecting with others is one of the best ways to counter this us vs them environment we're in and showing respect for others.
Thanks for sharing.
I shared this with your name, Cathy, hoping to make you very famous and influential, and our country free again.
My main reward is watching people's eyes light up when they are thinking of their dream. Famous doesn't matter to me but do hope to be influential. There is so much loneliness in so many people's lives. Even one person making a meaningful connection could change that other person's life. Let's keep sowing seeds and hope they find fertile grow to thrive in.
💞💞💞
Love This Cathy! "What is your dream?"
I disagree with the individual who says March for Our Lives is a waste of energy. I do think that it needs to be coupled with registering to vote and actually voting: Up and down ballot. The abysmal behaviour of the Uvalde mayor, at the sad news conference, should remain in the back of the minds of all who lost a loved one. This is even more true of the Governor and Senator Cruz.
I haven't read the reader's comment yet, but I will say this: The Women's March may not have resulted in concrete legislative change. But it changed the lives of tens of millions of Americans who participated in the marches. We need to change ourselves.
I was part of a large team of workers registering people to vote at the first March for Our Lives in D.C. for Moms Demand Action. Kevin Duran‘s mom spoke at the training session before the March. Personally, I registered 4 young voters and set up one from Hawaii to register when she got home. I’ve already signed up for this March.
There were hundreds at our local Bans Off Our Bodies rally along with a register-to-vote effort.
I did not see one in DC which surprised me.
I think there might be one; I had the same issue in SoCal, only to remove cache and get an updated version of dates.
Isaiah 1:15 totally applies to this gun violence situation. So too does an essay I read that said the Republicans are practicing child sacrifice by refusing to address gun violence.
Jenn. what you say is true. A very hard truth that we must recognize. Republicans in Congress and state legislatures believe that the mass deaths of children is acceptable collateral damage.
When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
I am not listening.
I want to here (and elsewhere) express my concern and compassion, yes, for this week's shooting, which wakes me in the middle of the night, but today, even more for last week's shooting for the in some ways already forgotten Black dead, their families, friends, caregivers, and communities from last week's shooting by an 18 year old community college freshman who drove 200 miles to kill all the Black people he thought he could, in some ways now shadowed by the little children shot by an 18 year old high school senior, who drove maybe two miles to kill fourth graders of his own ethnic background. EIGHTEEN--adolescent, though legally adult.
Yes, a serious mental health problem. We need more staff in college counseling centers, in high schools, in elementary schools. We also need more free parenting classes, more mental health training for pastors, and more childcare for single teenage parents. And more food stamps.
AND we need gun control and bullet control in a country increasingly divided by fear, bitterness and hate. To borrow from the motto of the American Himalayan Foundation, we all need to be kind, do good, and have fun. Myself, a retired clinical psychologist, today I heard from a former patient who survived a college shooting, one retraumatized many times in the years that I saw him. He wondered if/what to say to his first child, soon to finish kindergarten. He doesn't want them to be afraid to go to school.
Yes, it is time for action. Today I think of the title of a book I've never read, Cry My Beloved Country, written by Alan Patton about South Africa.
Carol, you are absolutely right. Buffalo and Uvalde are not different, and our outrage should reach both in equal measure. I listed Buffalo in the "ghoulish victories" that Republicans had already declared because it has begun to fade from the news. We cannot let that happen.
I was in my way to the grocery store a couple of miles from my house. I was wondering if it was safe for me to go there after that godawful Walmart massacre and now the horrendous Buffalo massacre. Then I heard on the radio about the massacre of those precious kids in Texas. My R senators will not do ANYTHING to stop this violence.
We read "Cry the Beloved Country" as juniors in High School, and yes, it is most apropos a title for our nation, right now.
BAN BULLETS except for hunting and for well supervised and registered "militia."
MaryPat, I am someone who disagrees with the SCOTUS ruling on the Second Amendment. They danced around the "militia" component by quibbling with the placement of the comma and concluded that everyone has the right to arm themselves.
I am far from a constitutional scholar, but the original intention was to enable American revolutionaries to form a militia in order to prevent foreign domination and suppression. They did just that: The National Guard. There is no longer a need for misinterpreting the amendment. Some say it can be removed.
The cult and mythos of modern weapons in the hands of citizens is very, very misplaced. I ask myself, when did any private citizen come to the aid of a school or church to stop a fool with an AK-whatever? How likely are they to come together to form their own militia in the face of governmental arsenals?
That's been my thought as well, Carol, about the forgotten in Buffalo. The only equalizer (or whatever term can be sadly used), is that in reporting the Buffalo event and expressing horror at the new fear at grocery stores, the press seemed to have totally forgotten the Boulder grocery store massacre (my nieces missed being there by seconds, it was their destination, but cop cars were flying into parking lot). The other is ageism, Buffalo being older folks, and Uvalde being children. Probably combination. It's all so pathetic: all lives have value.
The death of young children meat-grinds our inner instincts to protect our offspring even if our instinctive defense could mean our own death. That is the true definition of parenthood. Despite my own experiences as a first responder for 26 years and once witnessing a beautiful 14-year-old Cuban-American girl dead in her bed with a self-inflicted pistol hole in her scalp, her eyes wide-open in death. She was the same age as my own Theresa; when I returned to the station I immediately called Nancy to ask if Theresa was ok. But I never had to enter a classroom filled with bodies of children, even younger dead and as Chris describes. So, too, besides the kids dying in fear-filled horror and the anguish and rage of those parents is the effect this has had and will upon those Border Patrol Officers, those Deputies, Police Officers, Paramedics, EMTs, Ambulance Attendants and all the Doctors, Nurses and other Emergency Room Persons. How many of them have children and grandchildren and called home right after because what they saw struck their inner instincts as parents because they are human, unlike the Simians we have elected to represent us in government.
-RC Silvestri. Ft Pierce, FL
On May 27, 2022, at 5:53 AM, chris englund wrote:
The bullets of assault rifles are designed to tumble once they penetrate flesh , a meat grinder . Surgeons say the child victims are often unrecognizable .
Only in America does the massacre of children elicit calls for more guns .
Thank you for sharing your moving experience. And you raise a good point: ammunition. No one needs 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and no one needs a "tumbling bullet" or "exploding bullet" to kill a deer. Those rounds are designed to kill people. Regulating ammunition sales, type, characteristics should be part of gun control.
As one pundit noted,prayer,religion,God will not stop gun violence.Neither will a break or remembrances of those who perished.We need ACTION.Since politics will not permit outlawing of guns,let's do something-100% background checks,banning assault rifles is the bare minimum.We should have a massive march on DC banning gun violence.
I cannot recall the forum on which I read the post, but someone suggested making gun purchases as difficult to accomplish as it is to obtain an abortion. Food for thought.
It was this forum! Duh! Shout out to Molly C. for her excellent suggestions.
Here is another good response for the thoughts and prayers crowd. We were reminded this week by Nelba Marquez Greene, mother of Grace, who was murdered at Sandy Hook: "Faith without works is dead" ~James 2:26.
Bipartisan option for a quick solution ?? Require military style weapons to be held under lock & key at a gun range for controlled target practice but not in your home. Gun shop owners may support this as it would be income for them and expand their business. Men own these guns likely because of video games using military style weapons to kill people. If they have the $ to buy a gun, they want to use it somewhere. Mental health disorders are not gender specific!!!! Mass shooting are done by men. We need to find the cause and solution for angry men at the core of these shootings.
In the ancient Roman Senate for 20 years Cato repeated “Carthage must be destroyed.” Ignoring his call for genocide and culture eliminating war, his consistent, undeterred message became reality. Rome buried Carthage. We must do the same if it takes “until Hell freezes over” to quote Adlai Stevenson. Repeal the 2nd Amendment! Anything less is futile.
I recall Cato's famous speech from high school debate class. It is credited with the Roman victory over Carthage and Hannibal after decades of war.
Beau of the Fifth Column has proposed a potential solution. Some of the facts he stated stunned me but we should encourage our representatives to consider this https://youtu.be/g5g7OE3REME
I will read when I have a better internet connection. Can you summarize a few salient facts?
We are “mistakenly” addressing the weapon (type, size, availability) The facts he presented about numbers astounded me. Rather, address the person behind the weapon. 60% are perpetrators of domestic violence and if you add animal cruelty, you can nearly eliminate the type of person likely to commit these acts.
I follow Beau, and I find he makes a lot of sense. He presents a little known information.
What he suggests is a start. I would add other groups of people to his list.
Checked it out and really liked his approach. Great information! Thank you for the heads-up. 🙂
Thanks, Carla ! Also, well-documented the fatalities of law enforcement officers when responding to domestic violence calls.
Senate recently reauthorized Violence Against Women Act although there is the “boyfriend loophole”. Convicted spouses can’t access firearms but allows others (dating partners, acquaintances..)
As a former DV victim advocate, I can tell you many perpetrators are not spouses. Also, many are well-connected, wealthy members of the community.
IMO, we need to address weapons, DV, mental health…+++Here in Florida(sigh) our Republican Senators claim it’s a “ mental health issue”. So please explain why Florida’s Board of Education recently discontinued CDC’s time-tested Youth Risk Behavior Survey given to our teens???
If you watched the first video I posted, I promise you, the number of weapons in this country, I would venture to say, exceeds population. Beau addressed your concerns today https://youtu.be/FxOjnCs6ykA. The amendment as it stands, is worthless because of the loopholes. They all need to be eliminated.
That mental health issue “talking point” they like to throw around makes my blood boil. While I agree that is an element (observe : domestic violence and animal cruelty are both mental health issues) and yet, nobody wants to address it by funding it in any significant way.
The March for our Lives is unfortunately a waste of energy. Mobilize people to get folks registered to vote and then make sure they actually follow through in November. Vote the sleaze bags out of office. It’s the only path forward.
Hi, Theo. I disagree. The Women's March in 2017 did not result in concrete change. But it converted millions of Americans into activists, which allowed us to flip the House in 2018 and the SEnate in 2020. Marching changes us.
Wrong, no protest of evil is a waste of energy. Silence is complicit
Realistic pessimist that I am, I think this time may be different because there is a level of outrage expressed by people in media, in entertainment, in sports etc. that I haven't seen before. Now we need the Republican Senators to realize that when we say "enough is enough" we're counting on them to finally do something!
There is a handy dandy article in the New York Times today listing every Republican Senator’s position on gun control. Let’s each keep it next to our computers and tweet, post, email etc every day for the next few weeks asking them to revive the ban on assault rifles and pass new legislation strengthening background checks.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/25/us/gun-control-republican-senators.html
Sent from my iPhone
My earlier comment about maintaining a list of R positions is intended to help go on the offensive. We shouldn’t just wring our hands and talk to each other about R heartlessness. Let’s attack, in words that will resonate with moderates. Other topics include:
Interference with 1/6 committee
Attempt to get officials in Georgia, Arizona and elsewhere to change voting results
Ambiguous relationship with Putin/Russia (here I would cite Tucker Carlson as well as Trump)
Attempt to bribe Zelensky - Biden investigation for weapons
Undermining of NATO Alliance
I think the relationship with Putin is not ambiguous at all. I think the R’s led by tRump are very supportive of Putin. I never thought I would see such a day!
Per Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, there will be a rally in Houston along with BLM Houston today. "Don't Look Away. Hold Governor Abbott and the NRA accountable". 12:00 pm, CT. I am hoping to find a live stream. https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article261851545.html
Right on.