It’s Personal

On By Lady GIn National Events

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Updated:  6/13/2016 at 11:02am EST

If you have spent any amount of time on this blog then you already know a little bit about me; including the fact that I have two children whom I love dearly.

My youngest is 10 years old and my oldest is 22.  Yeah, I realize that there is a big difference in their ages but that’s just how the chips fell in my life and I wouldn’t change a thing about that.

Suffice it to say that my babies are my heart. And I mean that!  With that said, as a mother, I am sick to death of watching the aftermath of a deranged lunatic’s murderous rampage against our nation’s children.

Just to be clear, for the purposes of this post, the terms ‘child’ or ‘children’ are applied to anyone who has not yet attained the age of  150.

Sorry folks but your mother sees you as her child -I don’t give a damn how old you are.

At any rate, in 2012, like most folks, I was glued to the TV when the Sandy Hook shootings occurred.  I watched and cried as parents buried baby after baby after baby after baby.

I agonized as they eulogized the brave adults who lost their own lives trying to save their young students.

During that time, I remember looking at my youngest child (who was the same age as those kids) and thinking surely this massacre will be the turning point!  Surely, all parents will come together and take a stand!  Surely we can all agree that no civilian needs to own a freaking arsenal of semiautomatic rifles! Surely, this is the last straw!

The last straw!  Right?

Oh hell no, it was NOT the last straw.  In fact, there were many more murders to come and go. Each one resulting in a whole lot of nothing– from a legislative perspective.

Then this!  The worse mass murder in U. S. history.

So who were the victims this time?  I’ll tell you who they were.  They were people, just like you or me; out having a good time.  Many of them were young people who were about my son’s age with their whole lives ahead of them.

So what if most of them were members of the LGBTQ community?

To me, that’s beside the point!

The real and sobering fact of the matter is this, each and every person in that club was somebody’s son, daughter, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, father, mother, lover, husband, or wife ….and, to me,  that MAKES IT PERSONAL!

Now if you don’t believe it should be taken personally, read this article about a text conversation between a mother and her son.  By the way, this text conversation took place while this woman’s son was in attendance at The Pulse in Orlando, Florida this past Saturday night; the scene of the aforementioned mass murders.

Mind you, when this post was published, there had been no word on this young man’s fate. (Update:  Sadly, CNN has confirmed that this young man, Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, did not survive.)

Friends, when I read this article, I couldn’t help but cry for this mother, Mina Justice, because one of her son’s first messages to her was “Mommy, I love you.”  I cried because I have received that same type of message from my own son.

Frankly, I would argue that if you can read the above exchange, between mother and child, and remain unaffected, may God bless your numbed soul.

In fact, may God bless us all anyway –because we need it.

 

But it’s still personal and I am no longer planning to watch from the sidelines.

Not anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

40 thoughts on “It’s Personal”

  2. When I read the beginning of your post, I wondered what had happened to this young man. This is a very tragic ending and all the more if we link it to your title – It’s personal. This story about a mother and her son was so personal that it makes it all the more real. Bad as it is to be confronted with this piece of realism, it’s what we all need to sit up and take note. I agree with you and Ron that we need more love.

    Across the world, we are acting on fear and hence all the mayhem and violence. I listen to a lot of talk show radio – the good thing about it is that it provides a platform for everyone to share perspectives like this and fortunately there are many cases where people hear something tragic and then come forward to help. The downside, if when you put all these problems together, it’s easy to switch off or feel powerless. This is where I believe that sound leadership at every level of society is sorely needed. I can tell you that we have our fair share of horrific stories everyday!

    Thank you for this post and your rallying call Gwin.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you Chevvy for letting me know that I was successful at conveying just how personal we should take this.

      But as you said, there is so much going on in the world that it is easy to just turn the TV off and bury your head.
      Historically, that’s been my way of ‘dealing’ with it. But after this, I started making myself and my desires known to my Congressional representatives.

      For now, I’ll be happy if we can just be reasonable enough to get high powered semiautomatic weapons out of the hands of civilians. Those things have no other use than for hand to hand combat.

      One day, when you are up to it, I would love to hear more about the current issues that you all are facing in SA. I know that I can google that but I’d much rather ‘hear’ it from a friend 🙂

      Thanks for reading this dear.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yes, you did good. I think if you can get the politics to work for you that is half the battle won. I’ll save the issues for another day suffice to say that when you’re in it all the time, you can get jaded. But mine has always been to try and fight the good fight😀 and I take comfort that there are others out there trying as well.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  3. I updated the article to reflect the fact that the young man that I talked about in this post was among the murdered.

    Please find this copy/pasted information from CNN:

    “Eddie Jamoldroy Justice

    The 30-year-old accountant lived in downtown Orlando.
    Before he was identified as among those killed, his mother spent an agonizing day looking for him after he texted her from the club, according to CNN affiliate WFTV-TV.
    “Mommy I love you,” he said in his first message. “In club they shooting.”
    His mother, Mina Justice, tried to call him, but he did not answer. She sent him a series of text messages, trying to reassure him that she had called 911 and help is coming.
    After they exchanged more messages, including one where he said the gunman was in their bathroom hideout, he suddenly went quiet.”

    Y’all, I just can’t.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Woebegone but Hopeful

    This is a powerful and eloquent post ‘G’ Making every event such as Orlando as personal is important, vital to making change.
    Being from the UK, I’m outside of the gun control question (though I’m with you and Willie Nelson on automatics; battlefield weapons surely). But we’ve had our share of killings through bombs and blades; the perpetrators were always looking to provoke a massive national back-lash which didn’t happen; we had our lunatics (no other word for it). But pain and anguish is universal.
    One thing I will say; we hear many people talk at length about their ‘rights’ in this matter…what about their ‘responsibilities’?
    Take care, all of you
    Roger

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. Well said! I started crying when I was watching the news. A mother said her son hadn’t been found inside of Pulse. She broke down on camera and it made me break down as well. We are all humans who live in one world. I’m sick and tired of people treating others like they are less of a person because they are gay, a different color, a different sex, a different religion, etc. This is a free country and 2016! We have the right to worship any God we please (if we choose to), love whomever we choose, etc. OK fine, if you don’t like certain people…but only someone who’s really sick and filled with hatred would do something so disturbing like this. I don’t agree with the Second Amendment because of what happened today. However, it’s also our right to bear arms. This shooting was just over the top and extremely uncalled for. I have a 10-year-old son. I think we as parents will always worry about our children no matter how old they are.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Thanks you for that comment and for being so open Lisa. I don’t know how any mother can look at this and be alright with it. I have never understood people who take such an extreme stance against other human beings–you know, stuff like: you don’t look like I look or worship like I worship or believe what I believe so I have decided that you got to die.
      Just plain crazy.
      Thanks again for reading and commenting.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  8. ronbrownx

    I wonder what the answer is though. We don’t want to infringe upon 2nd amendment rights. More stringent background checks sounds good but, that’s a slippery slope when it comes to whether or not proposed legislation infringes. Also, what about the guns coming in from out of the country and other illegal gun acquisition methods. I think most guns used in violent crimes are acquired illegally? (I haven’t researched this but I believe it is true). What type of legislation would correct this?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Well we could just start by closing a few loops; like linking the basic background database to a terror watch database. There are legislators who want to do this.
      This guy (Pulse club murderer) got his guns legally despite having been investigated as a possible terrorist. Check out the video that I posted here with Barack talking about this loophole.

      The Sandy Hook shooter’s mother got her guns legally; she was just negligent in allowing her son to access them–but the fact remains that she had an arsenal of semiautomatic weapons–What the fuck for? I mean really?

      I get guns for protection and for hunting but these are semiautomatics that have been used in these mass murders and they were almost all purchased legally. Including Dylan Roof who killed Rev. Clementa Pinkney and the bible study class in Charleston.

      I just don’t know what any civilian needs with a semiautomatic gun like that. Even military officers are saying that civilians shouldn’t have those things.

      I don’t know cous…just thinking outloud really.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
      1. ronbrownx

        I think you are right about the majority of guns being bought legally, but the owner is not always the one doing the killing. The Sandy Hook murderer took his Mom’s weapons without her knowledge or permission. That constitutes theft, which is illegal. Many weapons are obtained through theft of guns that were bought legally but then stolen. Only 3% are borrowed or given.

        I think that the number of guns purchased legally and used for crimes by the owner and the number of guns acquired through illegal means, is probably close to even. (just an estimate). The point being that the guns used for violent crimes can be acquired using a number of methods so no single solution is going to work. Except LOVE, of course! 🙂

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

        1. Hey Love,

          I agree with you, this is not going to be fixed with one single method-outside of love 🙂

          But I will say that I would be happy with a ban on high powered semiautomatic weapons for civilian use.

          You’re gonna laugh at this but I once watched Willie Nelson on TV say that he grew up around guns and understands their use for hunting and protection. However, he followed-up by saying:

          “I don’t know what I would do with a gun that would shoot 100 times… I don’t agree with that. I think it should be more regulated…There’s no need for civilians to own those. Those are for military.”

          Bold statement from Willie, if you consider his fan base.

          As for me, I totally agree with him there. If you were to hunt with that type of weapon, the meat would be riddled with bullets; how could you eat that?

          Hell you couldn’t even stuff if for show because the animal’s flesh would be destroyed.

          The fact of the matter is that those types of weapons are for war settings.

          Anyway, we could start there.

          In the meantime, the like-minded can begin working with love and light and providing care and comfort for one another.

          PS to all: If anyone is interested, I will share that link to Willie’s comments.

          Liked by 2 people

        2. ronbrownx

          I like that, a specific objective. Let’s all get behind this movement to ban assault weapons for anything less than law enforcement, military etc.

          I, like Willie, grew up hunting in rural South Ga. And I have never been in a situation where I wished I’d had an AK or such.

          Liked by 1 person

    1. Exactly and I am just sick of it. I would have thought that Sandy Hook was the tipping point, what with it happening to babies, but not so.

      I am just tired of it twin but I vowed to see what I can do instead of sitting back and watching this shit happen over and over.

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply
      1. T. Wayne

        We need everyone who is sick of it to try and effect change. At what point does it become too much? If this one isn’t it, how many more people have to die? I just wonder what it takes to move the needle.

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

        1. Okaaay??? Like I said, if Sandy Hook couldn’t do it what can? There is a video of the POTUS warning that this very thing could happened–that even a person who had been subject to terrorist investigations could still legally purchase guns because staunch guns rights legislators will NOT allow stricter background checks and other gun control legislation to pass.
          I am not a complete ‘no guns for anybody’ type of girl. I am just saying we need to be sensible about this thing.
          But as long as it’s money over lives, we will see more of the same old same old.

          Liked by 3 people

        3. By the way, my flickded ass hit the publish button before I could type the last two lines so I hope you saw the part about me not sitting back and doing nothing anymore.
          Chile the plight of the elderly is real LOL!!!

          Liked by 1 person

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