Waking up to my spouse crying is not experience I’d like to repeat.
In case you’ve been disconnected from the news for the past two days, or you’re just living under a rock and don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s an article from CNN to get you up to speed.
And in case you don’t know anything about Pittsburgh, PA or Squirrel Hill, the community where this shooting occurred, let me tell you about us. We’re not a sleepy or backwards town. We’re a fully in-the-now city with a Google office and companies who are world leaders in biotech. Squirrel Hill is a close-knit community just outside of the city with a large Jewish population, some conservative, some not.
When I was in college and for a few years after, I lived on the edge of Squirrel Hill and Shadyside. I was frequently in the shops, restaurants, and bars in Squirrel Hill. I regularly said hello to the Hasidic Jewish families headed to prayer on the Sabbath.
So you can imagine how I felt yesterday morning when I awoke to my spouse telling me that a man with a gun (a white man, I’ll add) walked into the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill yesterday morning and started shooting people, one of whom was a 97 year old Holocaust survivor.
You read that right. This woman survived the Nazi Party in Germany, only to be gunned down by another white supremacist some 80 years later in her house of worship.
That disgusts me.
Hate of this kind has no place in our modern world. Hating someone for their religion, the color of their skin, their sexual identity or gender expression, or any other stupid reason you can name is a ridiculous thing when there are millions of real problems one can concern themselves with. Like climate change. Like poverty. Like war.
Hell, like who will win the World Series.
The people in that synagogue didn’t deserve to be gunned down by a man they had never met nor had ever wronged. I am thankful that the Pittsburgh SWAT team was able to act quickly and subdue the gunman before he could kill more people than he did. But even a few lost to gun violence and hate is too many.
My heart hurts for the families of the victims, and I am glad they are getting the support they need from our city and Governor Wolf. And I don’t intend to offer them nothing more than thoughts and prayers like some people.
Thoughts and prayers are useless when this kind of thing keeps happening across multiple groups of people, all over our country. I’m putting my convictions to good use on Election Day (Nov. 6th, don’t forget!) and sending a message to the politicians that keep allowing these things to happen with their inaction and with their outright support for hate groups.
And if you think that standing up and saying enough is enough like I am is me “getting political”, I think you need to ask yourself what it means to be a decent human being.
Does that mean throwing your hands up and pretending there’s nothing you can do to change the way our world is headed? Or does it mean standing up and saying I’m not okay with hatred and violence of this kind?
For me, it’s an easy choice. I’m standing up and saying I’m not okay with hatred and violence of this kind.
Writing in a Dark Room 
I agree with everything you said. And I agree with what you say about voting. But there are deeper selfish evil forces in play behind the scenes. in the dark money that buys these politicians that have been groomed to serve them and to take away our country as we know it. I watched the documentary. I knew outside monies even from out of this country are coming in to certain politicians. but it scared the hell out of me to see just how easily voters are manipulated.
the people voted and the people chose Hillary Clinton. by a large margin. But it did not matter. because they used an outdated political tool that should have been removed years ago bought the votes they needed and put in the man Russia had been grooming since 1985. And that is why these rallies and rants he does is brainwashing too many who refuse to see the truth. just like right now at this minute he uses those poor people making their way to the border as a smokescreen. And fills people with lies and using scare tactics and lies to distract people to the other more important issues. according to Newsweek intelligence officials have no evidence or indication that these are terrorists or evil men hiding behind women or hundreds of drug lords or any of the other stuff trump has been spewing. then they scared people into a frenzy saying they were bringing smallpox leprosy and t.b. into our country. I hate to tell you folks but there is already plenty of cases of t.b. in the u.s. and you can’t blame the Mexicans. it’s been around before I was born and I am 62. And Newsweek also reported that there is no smallpox or leprosy in their country. But too many people fall for these lies instead of thinking for themselves and searching for the truth. they get swept up in the rhetoric our poor excuse for a so called leader is spouting. I can’t understand this level of mass brainwashing. how in the hell is it fake news when you can take film clips and his tweets and put them side by side to show his lies. and complete film clips from his rallies not just sound bites. And you cant fake his tweets because they are there in plain sight. now he takes credit saying he stopped us going to war with n Korea. and right now he is spending what Newsweek reports will be 50 million dollars sending troops out to stop this so called invasion with men armed to the teeth against men armed with rocks at the most and unarmed women and children. the way he is acting one would think that we had armed tanks and soldiers headed this way instead of families trying to find somewhere to live away from senseless violence. if those poor people only knew what our country has become. and those people won’t get here for weeks which is why this is a total waste of taxpayer money. but its all a push to turn people away from the issues of health care for one so that they won’t vote for the democrats and he can continue to have full rein over it all. he thrives on the power. now he says he doesn’t have to defend the constitution. that he can just take away the rights and protections he deems with an executive order. do you seriously believe he will stop with merely taking away the rights of the newborns to be citizens. And some say that the supreme court will stop him. but wait a minute. there is no supreme court for the people now. this is trumps supreme court now because of the 2 yes men that were hand picked to forever rule in favor of whatever trump wants now. being paid with that dark money to set the rules. it’s why he is just now declaring he can eliminate the rights with a stroke of his pen. no amendment needed. they never did an investigation. those 6 pages the fbI called an investigation was a joke. they never questioned anyone in regards to his attempted rape. And one of the guys called them so he could tell what happened when the fbi never contacted him. he was ready to tell the truth. and even after he called them they never questioned him.
no he got pushed through in order to have him in place just in case the vote doesn’t go their way. and don’t think for a second that the justice suddenly had a desire to retire so close to mid term elections after all these years. he received an offshore account with a hefty retirement fund. I was hoping there was a chance he might have been threatened somehow by trumps forces. until I read about his connections with the trump family. so I guess he truly threw away our country’s foundation for a price tag. it was all carefully manipulated and planned for months. and was why they couldn’t risk an honest investigation. so now any challenges to the supreme court regarding our rights as citizens or becoming one as this case is now will automatically be ruled against us. the men trump put in have no respect or regard for the law or the constitution. they were put there in order to undermine our country. challenges about the lands being stripped from our national parks and our monuments cheap land grabs for drilling mining or trump golf courses the challenges being made to try and stop him are now meaningless. it’s the only reason he is removing the endangered species act. to get access to the lands occupied by the endangered species. And what’s heartbreaking. we will lose it all. so many plamt and wildlife are barely hanging on by a thread. all will be lost because of power and greed and special interests groups. who say climate change is a fraud even with the evidence and statistics in front of their faces.
I bet most have no idea what has been happening in our national parks and monuments. especially in Utah and out West. or did you think that the area in alaska the last piece of wilderness so many fought for and Obama added to protect it from being destroyed by drilling is enjoying its restored salmon run.
do you remember months ago the budget so many republicans were so proud of that they passed after destroying everything Medicaid and Medicare funding and funding for education and social services so they would have money to give the millionaires and billionaires tax cuts. well there was a lot of things attached to that budget that had absolutely nothing to do with the budget. things attached in exchange for votes in favor of that budget. things that Obama would have removed with line vetoes. well one of those things was to remove the protection to that thriving little spot in Alaska. so that it could now be destroyed by greed by oil drilling. And it didn’t stop there. just over a month ago Alaska politicians requested permission to remove laws regarding bears and wolves. And since the man in charge of the bureau of land management is one of trumps they were given permission to go into the dens of wolves and bears to kill off all their young so that they can eradicate all the bears and wolves. they were also allowed to remove the ban that allowed them to let their dogs run the bears down.
I will still vote even though like with Hillary it could be for naught but you have to see how critical it is to vote to take a stand and those young people need to start their own demonstrations to deter trumps invasion smokescreen . we need a March across the country that says there are still those of us that refuse to be brainwashed refused to be silenced refuse to ignore the deep seeded communist evils taking over our country.
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I am hopeful that there are enough of us that have had enough that this won’t be a repeat of the 2016 election. Only time will tell. 45 and the Republicans are trying to turn this country into something I don’t recognize and I don’t want. The only way they win is if we stay home and let them.
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