MASSACRE
Tears fell in Virginia today. Sobs were heard across the nation. A gunman with a Visa has broken our hearts. Why do we cry? Why do we feel anger, grief, outrage, and fear? Some say we need better campus security. Some say we need gun control. Some say they understand that the gunman was enraged by his girlfriend. Some were sure it was a terrorist. Some are certain it will happen again. Some are afraid for their children. Many, even those who say they do not believe, thanked God it wasn't their child, their father, their sister, or brother. They thanked God it wasn't them. And then life goes on.

We check the stock reports to see how oil is doing and if our investments are making us money. We watch the news and listen to pundits analyze the reasons and foretell the next political agenda. We listen to talk radio as experts rationalize behaviors. And then we thank God again that it wasn't us. We pray a little. Cry a little. And then turn on the Sopranos or hateful rap music or Howard Stern. And we wonder why? We wonder how?

How did he get the guns? Why did he kill others and not just his girlfriend? Why didn't the alarm go out sooner? Who can we blame? Who's at fault?

We are. We have created all that we see and feel. We are at fault. We have encouraged and allowed our children to listen to hate. We have taught the children of other countries to listen to our anger, our negativity, our lust for money and love. We give them talk radio and television and films and music that depict us as atheistic, misogynistic, decadent imperialists who only believe in money, sex, and violence. We interpret the right to bear arms to mean we can all carry guns and use them as we please. We interpret the right to free speech to mean we can say anything to anyone, anywhere we please. We read the words on the Statue of Liberty and interpret the "tired and poor, the huddled masses," to mean anyone from anywhere who wants to use us or abuse us. We interpret the constitution to mean only some of us are in a nation under God. So what do we do now? How do we avoid more broken hearts, more senseless death? How do we begin to heal?

We cannot heal if we mask the cause. We cannot begin to balance our lives through surgery. If we only put borders on our schools, who have we imprisoned? If we argue gun control for another generation and allow only the killers access to weapons, who have we protected? If we send our children to the mall with credit cards and give them computers and the freedom to choose before they have the foundation for behavior, how will they lead the next generation? If we teach defense and say we can't stop these things from happening we can only learn how to respond when it does, how do we teach our children, our family, our country to move forward and grow?

Americans need to stand up and claim their birthright. Americans need to take responsibility for what we have created within our boundaries. It begins at home. It begins with the FCC. It begins with overcoming the fear that someone might not like us if we do what's right, instead of what's accepted by the flock. It begins with the government, a government that is supposed to be by the people and for the people. A government that is not supposed to provide funds, but leadership. A government that should not have personal agendas, but solutions. A government that should not tax each solution Americans need and then give freely to those who aren't or don't want to be Americans.
We, the people of the United States of America, need to reclaim our responsibility as Americans. To be an American means we believe in one nation under God. We believe that charity begins at home. We believe and know that hard work made our country great and that continuing that work isn't so hard when you love what you're working for. We, the people, need to take our children by the hands and teach them, or reteach them, that they have been given the gift of life and liberty, and that that gift does not come unconditionally. We need them to know that being an American means bearing arms to defend your country and that free speech means honoring your words and the people you speak them to. We need them to learn that are responsible for choosing the people who work for them, who govern them, and that the right to choose is uniquely American.

We can only begin to heal when we stop the churning of the melting pot. We can only begin to find the cause and change it when we are truthful with ourselves. When we admit we've been lazy about making our government do what's right for the country and therefore what's right for our family. When we admit that all the people of our country who have chosen to live by the laws, language, and beliefs of our country are our family. When we admit that we haven't been the parents we should have been, the workers we should have been, the faithful we should have been, or even the warriors we should have been. When we stop the uniquely male energy that always relies on the warrior and find the balance between male and female that allows for peace and vision and truth and responsibility to the Earth and its people.

Tears fell in Virginia, and unless we begin with ourselves and begin to teach each other the ways to live on this Earth, they will fall again. Whom, then, will you blame?