When will enough be enough?

When planning out this post for today last night, I was thinking of my different observations from yesterdays match.  Little nuances of different individuals performances and how it contributed to the collective.  How each member of the squad can do little things throughout a game to effect the result and then the events of Las Vegas occurred as I was getting ready for bed.  How it is possible for one deranged, motivated person to cause so much devastation and sadness?  The events hit home to me as I had several friends and acquaintances in the city at the time. Luckily none were harmed but as the coverage continued late into the night and the casualties continued to rise I couldn't help but think...





That, ladies and gentlemen, is where I had to stop the other day.  I was going to write something insightful and interesting but I couldn't.  The emotions I was feeling got the better of me and still two days later it is still difficult for me to express myself.  If you watched any of the videos from the terrorist massacre and heard the relentless stream of bullets, of these metal objects of death, raining down on a completely innocent crowd of people simply enjoying a concert it leaves you in a state of surrealism. At least it did for me. It felt like a dream; it felt like a nightmare. How could someone indiscriminately end the lives of innocent people?  You try to empathize, you, in this dream state, put yourself in this situation and it does not even begin to give you an idea of what these people went through. Ceaseless ringing of bullets being fired, each one having the potential of ending a human life. Many of them did.

As individuals we have a hard time of having empathy for people we don't know.  We see the total number of casualties and it's impossible to fathom the amount of loss of life.  We have a hard time connecting with victims. As the days go on we will have the story of these individuals, the family and friends they left behind as their lives were taken from them but that is not enough for us to feel the empathy necessary in a situation like this.  Instead of thinking about their stories, if you truly want to empathize, think about your own.  Think about how complex your life truly is, the interactions and thoughts you have on a daily basis with your world around you. That is what was lost. For every single one of the 59 that lost their lives, they lost that complex and deep interaction with those around them, something we inherently take for granted. These are people. We are all people. We the people owe it to one another to realize this, respect it and most of all cherish it.

This leads me to my title...when will enough be enough? How many reminders is it going to take? How many more mass shootings is it going to take for us to realize that providing people who are truly deranged with the means of causing so much devastation is something we can directly prevent?

Hardly a post on Arsenal but something I had to say.

-Best Coast Gunner