The Least You Can Do

but different this time

I don’t know what to say.

I’m stuck in a crazy cognitive dissonance loop. I’m not sure I can create complete sentences. First Buffalo, now Uvalde. It’s not just gun violence, it’s the whole system.

So many people have penned so many eloquent statements these past few days; yet I can barely scrape together a cohesive chain of thought.

I can’t make room in my brain to understand how pro-life means only potential life, not actual life. How the right to own a killing machine is guaranteed, but the right to exist without being gunned down is not. How health care is deemed murder, but mass murder is just one-of-those-things. How the will of the many is bullied by the force of an elite few. How the unborn are sanctified and protected, while the living are contemptable and expendable.

Art by Cedric Smith

I don’t think I’m capable of helping you process what’s going on. I am sad, hurt, angry, heartbroken, disgusted, enraged and exhausted—to name a few. I’m a hot crying mess in the corner of an airport.¹

The one thing I do know, is that when you don’t know what to do, when you feel lost and confused, the most grounding action you can take is that which benefits another.

Here are some suggestions

• Sign this petition telling the NRA to cancel their big convention in Houston this weekend (not far from Uvalde, TX).

• Text “ACT” to 644-33. You’ll be connected with resources to contact your elected officials.

Donate:

• GoFundMe set up a hub of verified fundraisers from Uvalde.

• VictimsFirst (a network of families of the deceased and survivors from over two decades of previous mass shootings) started this fund to make sure that 100% of what is collected goes DIRECTLY to the victim base so the victims’ families and those wounded/injured are protected from fraud and exploitation.²

• Blood—you don’t need to live in Texas for it to help.

Please do something.

Thank you.

1. This is where I’m going to say if you disagree with me, please take the energy you would use for a debate or to berate/insult, and turn it inwards. This is a time for examination, not belligerent justification.

2. I mean, what the fucking fuck?! Somehow, we have created a society where we cannot protect our own citizens from being gunned down en masse, but also, we can’t just give them healthcare, they will be charged extravagently for it, so we need a fundraiser to help pay for it. But, so many people are willing to exploit these victims, that survivors of previous mass shootings created a non-profit to raise funds for future mass shooting victims in an attempt to protect them from exploitation.