A New Year, Really?

Can we really say, “Happy New Year?” When just three hours into this supposedly new year innocent lives are plowed down and brutally killed? When others witness the horror and cannot do anything to help aid those lying in the streets?

Daughters. Sons. Moms. Dads. Grandchildren. Grandparents. Sisters. Brothers. Cousins. Nieces. Nephews. Aunts. Uncles. Neighbors. Friends.

How much will be too much? How far is too far? How many casualties and injuries are too many? Who will answer these questions? Local Government? Federal Government? Citizens?

Get angry. Cry. Pray. But don’t stay there. Let it get under your skin. Aggravate you to take action. Write to the lawmakers. Write your local officials. Join Everytown.org in learning and advocating for safer environments and learn about your surroundings. Go to Commonsensemedia.org to see how to talk about these things with your kids.

With each of these tragedies, I ask myself, “What was this person’s ‘how far will they let me go?'”

Now, we don’t know much about this morning’s events. So, let’s think about recent school shootings or the recent insurance CEO.

We always ask, were there any warning signs. And those are helpful, but let’s go a step further with this and ask, did the warning signs seem like building blocks- where one conflict was a cautionary warning, the second conflict was an alarming warning, the third was a what in the world were you thinking warning (aka pushing every boundary), and the fourth comes with a response from the suspect of, “I asked how far/how high, and no one ever said stop. So I kept pressing!”

Do we have the courage to speak and say THIS is the boundary for how far is too far and THIS is the boundary for how high is too high to jump? Or will we keep to ourselves and stick to the motto “It’s not my business. It’s a free country. Express yourself freely and however your heart desires.”

I am all about having conversations. There are many ways to express yourself without threats, violence, or manipulation. But for today and for this new year, I propose the question to you, When will it be too much, too far, too high, too many, too extreme, too close, for you to say, “Stop! Enough!”

Life Book of the Week: My Yellow Balloon, by Tiffany Papageorge