Taking a bullet for your kid used to be just a saying

El Paso shooting victim and protective Mom Jordan Anchondo.

As I’m trying to find the words for this post, I think of the story I read about the parents that were killed in the El Paso shooting, trying and succeeding in protecting their two-month old baby. Jordan Anchondo died shielding her baby, her husband Andre, died shielding them both. All three were caught in hail of bullets while shopping for back to school and party supplies for their 5-year-old daughter’s upcoming birthday.

I told my husband this morning as “Good Morning America” was covering the stories of both the El Paso. Texas and Dayton, Ohio shootings, that if outrage of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012 wasn’t enough to make the changes we need to keep Americans safe, if the mass shootings of elementary school children was not enough for fucking lawmakers to do their damn jobs, then NOTHING will EVER change.

It doesn’t matter how many people die, who they were, how much they will be missed by family, friends and colleagues, or how they lived, this madness will continue. These shootings will be splashed across the news and social media outlets over and over again, stoking the same damn reactions from people on both sides of the issue.

People WANT SOMETHING to help stop this shit.

For those who have never been the victim of a crime, it’s a club that you NEVER want to be in. Until you have been there, you will never truly understand the trauma, the fear, the helplessness you feel in that situation. Your life is forever changed, scarred by the memory when someone felt the need to inflict pain.

You relive that moment when you hear of stories that happen to other people. The situations may differ, but the common thread is what was used against you. For me, that was a gun.

To take a page from a post from a very smart woman and my colleague, Anne-Marie, what about MY RIGHTS to live my life, to be able to go to a store, a concert, a club, to have my son attend his school without the fear that some fucking pissed off, racist, troubled individual, that can’t get their own shit together deciding to murder innocent people with GUNS since it’s the most effective way to mow down large groups of people?!?!?

What about MY RIGHT to NOT carry a weapon because I don’t believe in having one??? What about MY RIGHT to live in peace, to raise my family without the fear brought on by people that choose to live with hatred???

Our society has been heading down such a dangerous path since November 2016. The hate speech and rhetoric spewed out EVERY DAY by the person holding the highest office in our country, the people who elected him and those who turn a blind eye to what this man does is what drives these maniacs to feel they have free rein to do what they want in the worst way possible.

The people who have been in the dark for years with their hatred have been coming out of hiding because of what comes out of this man’s mouth  and what he sends out through social media normalizes hatred. His supporters continuing to stoke those fires with their compliance to his actions.

We still have a long way to go until November 2020. We still have to endure the nonsense of our current government and the people who back him.

I don’t know how we will ever come back around to the days of civility, common decency and decorum, but we have to try. We have to try to be the best that we can with our families, our friends, our communities. We have to lift each other up instead of tearing each other down. We have to find humanity within each other, if we are to have a chance against the evil that seeks to take over our way of life.

It all starts with the tick on a ballot. Let’s work to have the best candidate possible in order to make sure that we have a better outcome next year.

Contact your congressmen or congresswomen. Sign petitions. Attend protests. Speak up for those who can no longer do so. We each can make a difference, no matter how small.

When talking about being a Mom to my friends and colleagues, I’ve often said that though my “Lil’ Boopa” makes me want to run into traffic at times, I would take a bullet for him any day. I can only pray that I won’t end up in a situation where I ever have to do that.