Highland Park Shooting

Once upon a time we would dress the children in sailor dresses and color blocked Gap tees and tie American flag bandannas on the 2 big white dogs and put streamers on strollers bikes and trikes and roll the clan uptown along the sun-dappled Green Bay trail to Central avenue for the annual parade. Later, as they grew they were on the floats and marching and all of that… it was suddenly officially summer… in Highland Park, the whole town came out. We would end the night watching the fireworks, sweaty and in love with our big little family and for one day suspended in the patriotic fantasy of being free. I wanted nothing more than their safety and happiness. The bad stuff could never happen here…not in a place like this. While I don’t fly that flag now, because I was awakened to the many injustices still unrepented my the nation, I still hold community gatherings in the highest esteem. And no community should have to go through what #HP did today. So far this year alone, 308 mass shootings in the US. I can’t anymore with this country that hates it’s own children so much it won’t protect them or educate them or care for them. Fuck the NRA, and SCOTUS and goddess bless these people, and every hometown everywhere, from these numb violent white men and boys and their assault weapons. May our love and care and activism create a new world. 9 days ago we had the first new gun legislation passed. It’s a start, but it won’t fix the broken heart of Highland Park, or Uvalde, or bring back the dead. The pervasive undercurrent of human suffering asks us to put our whole hearts into healing and caring for each other, and on making a society of respect and reverence. Grief then grace, to keep living and making change. Last night in Italy, there was thunder and lightning and a chill wind. I cried a lot today. For humanity. I love you.