Kranky Kricket: Love/Hate Government

Unlike last week, I don't really have a laundry list of things that bothered me this week. I mean, yeah, there are some government things I could talk about, but my opinions aren't that much different from everyone else.

A lot of what's going on in Washington is interesting and everyone is all shocked or surprised by things, whereas I don't think they should be. What is going on now, this is not the first time our government has covered up an international incident. This isn't the first time different groups have been targeted and harassed by the government. And this is not the first time that the government has spent a lot of time and resources monitoring their own people for various reasons.

What makes things different now is that we live in an era of information. It's easier to find information and it's easier to spread it. Thanks Internet. Sometimes all we find and spread are lies, but in there is a nugget of truth. And thankfully, we the people, no longer have to simply take what we are spoon fed by the major media.

But even through all of this, I still love this country and I'm still grateful for this government. It's not perfect by any means, because it is run by people. And humans are possibly the most flawed creatures on this planet. But I'd rather live here than any where else.

Now remember friends, take deep breathes and let go of all that negativity and have a great weekend!

Tragedy & Remembrance

I'm sure by now we are all aware of the tragic school shooting that happened yesterday in  Connecticut. I've had some time to absorb this and to read a lot of articles and other's opinions on this and I have some things I want to get off my chest.

First, I have never cried so hard for people I didn't know as I have been this last day. Even now, as I allow my self to think about it, I'm crying. I just can not imagine what it must be like this morning for all those parents who are waking up (assuming they ever fell asleep) without their little one. My heart literally aches for them.

Now, I'm a little bit disgusted with some members of our human family. Of course, it didn't take long for the gun control issue to be brought up. People tried not to bring it up, but even President Obama couldn't help mentioning it in his speech yesterday. I even read a few passing comments about violence in our media.

So here's what I don't understand. Why are we so busy pointing the finger at all these other issues? Why are we trying so hard to find something or someone else to blame besides the evil Monster that did this?

Because let's face some facts people, this Monster (and yes, that is what I'll be referring to him as, he doesn't deserve to even be called a person) was obviously mentally ill in one way or another. It's safe to assume that he woke up Friday morning and thought, "I'm going to hurt as many people as possible today". You can try to blame the entertainment media for all the violence in movies and music and video games, you can try and blame the availability of guns in this nation, but that does not change the fact that this Monster made a terrible decision and acted it out. He is responsible for his actions.

And I'm sure that as we learn more about the Monster and his history we might find that he was abused by his parents or bullied in school and then we'll blame his parents, or the people who hurt him in any way. But trying to put the blame on everyone and everything besides him doesn't accomplish anything. It doesn't change what he did and it won't bring those 26 people back.

So here's my unprofessional, uneducated opinion. Typically, we get angry to cover up how sad or hurt we are. I believe it is easier for us to talk about gun control than it is to let the sadness and the grieving enter our hearts. We don't want to deal with that sort of pain. It's so much easier to lash out and say, "We'll if he didn't have a gun, if guns were illegal..." or "If video games didn't glorify violence, then this wouldn't have happened". We can play the What If game all day. That doesn't change anything.

And I know some of you are thinking, "But Kristen, if we change some things now, we can prevent something like this from happening in the future". I'm going to lay out a cold hard truth for you, no we can't. If there is a person out there who is determined to hurt another human being, there is very little that can stop them. For instance, I just saw a headline about a man who wounded 22 children in China with a knife.

Now we could go back and forth all day about what that means. But I don't want to because it doesn't matter. There is evil out there in the world and there is very little we can do to completely stop it. And I'm not saying that we should do nothing. Sure there are somethings that can be changed to make us all safer but we all must understand that when a crazy Monster decides to hurt people, he will do it.

So here's my final thoughts. Let us all stop arguing about things that don't matter. Allow your self to grieve for these people, even though you don't know them. Feel sad, cry a little, it's okay. Don't let all this make you angry, those sweet souls who are with their Heavenly Father right now wouldn't want that. We should not let their tragic death be a point of contention between us.

My thoughts and prayers will continue to be with all the people effected by this. If you have children in your life, keep them close today and be kind to them, hell, spoil them a little and be sure to tell them you love them as much as humanly possible.

Thanks for reading. :)

EDIT: Now that we know the names of these victims I wanted to share them. I got this information from CNN.

Charlotte, 6

Daniel, 7

Rachel Davino, 29

Olivia, 6

Josephine, 7

Ana, 6

Dylan, 6

Dawn Hocksprung, 47

Madeleine, 6

Catherine, 6

Chase, 7

Jesse, 6

James, 6

Grace, 7

Anne Marie Murphy, 52

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack, 6

Noah, 6

Caroline, 6

Jessica, 6

Avielle, 6

Lauren Russeau, 30

Mary Sherlach, 56

Victoria Soto, 27

Benjamin, 6

Allison, 6

I also found this article that talks a little bit about some of the victims. There isn't a ton of information out about the children, which is understandable. As a parent I'm pretty sure I'd have a hard sharing my lost little one with the world right now as well. 

So now that we know their names let us remember them for the rest of this year and for as long as we can. And remember their poor families who have to go through this Christmas season with out their loved one.

Ranty Mood

So events this weekend have put me in a ranty/angry mood and I'm going to let off some steam. I'm going to talk about some current events news wise, events in my personal life and online drama. I could provide links to news stories and stuff, but that's more work than I care about right now, so as my favorite YouTuber, Phillip DeFranco says, "Google is a thing". And I'll try to keep this short.

First, the movie theater massacre that happened early Friday morning.
A) I am so sad and mourn for the family and friends of those who were killed, injured, or who were even there and had to go through such a terrifying experience.
B) I am angry that people and the media are more interested in talking about gun control (this country will never give up rights to bear arms, deal with it, and even if "stricter" gun laws were in place, that wouldn't have stopped this from happening) or violence in video games, movies, media, etc (you can't blame anyone else beside the gunman, he pulled the trigger, not a media franchise, or our society or anything else) than the victims. Yeah, those topics are more interesting, but trust me, nothings going to change on either of those fronts.
C) I am of course, appalled at what happened. And I'm intensely (morbidly?) curious as to why he did it.

Second, apartment drama.
There's a roach infestation here that started in the apartment above ours and has not been properly dealt with by management. We've had bug people here to spray twice and it has not solved the problem. Management didn't tackle this problem right away and now it's out of control and inconveniencing everyone. I literally thank God that we are moving into a new place on Saturday.

Third, internet/literary community drama.
Goodreads is a pretty awesome site for book lovers and the people who write them. One of it's biggest features is the reviews that people post about books. Over the past week or so (although I only learned about it yesterday) there has been a lot of drama and bad things going on between book reviewers and authors. Here's my take away from it.
If you review books on your blog (as I do, sometimes) try to remember what you learned about critiquing in school. Try to be constructive and don't make personal attacks on the author. Yes, you are entitled to your opinion, but you are NOT entitled to be an ass about it.
If you are an author that gets a negative review about some of your work, even if the reviewer is being a total troll, DO NOT ENGAGE! Many established and published authors will tell you to not respond, period, and some say to just thank the reviewer. There are many cases where an author has argued with a reviewer and it has never ended well.

Ok, I'm done now. If you'd like to know more about what I think on any of the topics I touched on. I'd be glad to respond either in the comments, or if it's a big enough discussion, I'll do a separate blog post. And please comment, I'd love to know how you feel as well. :)

Have a Happy and Relaxing Sunday and Thanks for Reading!