Heartbreak and hope

My old friends Tai and Anne are visiting from Vermont, and today as we enjoyed Bella's company, we heard of the shooting in southern Oregon. Our President said again, as he says each time gun violence erupts in this way, "This is a political choice we make to allow this to happen every few months in America." It is much easier to get a gun in the USA than a job, an education, health care, support for mental illness, or housing. The right wing, supported by the powerful gun lobby, defends the right of all people to own guns, and our elected officials do nothing but block efforts to restrict gun ownership or at least to prevent violently mentally ill people from obtaining guns. 

Bella went with me this afternoon to give Beyond the flash drive with his pictures on it, and we stopped by the playground with Beverly Cleary statues in it. Bella, blissfully unaware of the killings 180 miles south of us, mimicked the Ramona Quimby statue. I wish she were growing up in a less violent culture.

Answer to the President's request for a graphic comparing terrorism and gun violence.