A sad day in CT…
I woke up this morning to a text from my college “roomie” (as I call her still.) She was expressing her sadness over an event that took place last night resulting in the death of two police officers and the serious injury of a third. She knew this would affect me deeply as I am a wife, a sister in law, and a mother of a Law Enforcement officer. This is the worst LE tragedy to happen in CT as far as I know. I am in no way saying that the lives of other officers who were killed in the line of duty matter any less…of course they do not…this is just the first time two, with the potential for three happened in one night. It seems at this point, this is a result of a domestic dispute between two brothers. That is what I want to address in today’s message.
We are living in such a divided society right now. There has always been division, that we know for sure, but I don’t think there have been times like this…at least not in my lifetime at least. Anger has permeated so much of our society. It has been there, but these last couple of years fueled that anger to the point of people not being able to see beyond it. I have no idea what took place between these brothers, but whatever it was, it stirred up enough anger in one of them that he felt the need to kill two (with plans to kill more no doubt) innocent officers who were there to help. Senseless. Reactive. Tragic.
I have no simple answer to this madness. What I do know for sure is that we need to do better as a society. We need to take responsibility for our lives and for our emotions and we need to get the help we need to heal the wounds that hurt us so deeply. I understand that people are angry. I understand that people are hurting. And, at the risk of sounding trite…”hurt people hurt people.” I get that. I truly do. The government can’t fix this for us. Healthcare as a system (which is more of a business these days than anything else) can’t fix this for us. We have to fix this. Each of us. One at a time. We have to fix this.
How do we do that. We start with ourselves…the only thing we have complete control over. We start with ourselves and really do some inner searching to see how we are feeling, what we are carrying, what it is doing in our body and through our body, and then we need to take responsibility for our healing. it’s not okay to be unkind. it’s not okay to yell at people who have a different opinion than yours. It’s not okay to be violent with words or actions. And it’s definitely not okay to take a life. We have to stop normalizing violent behavior based on the fact that people have been wounded. Yes, they have been…to an extent we all have been. That’s not an excuse. We need to heal. We need to heal ourselves. Reach out for help if we need it. Connect with others. Find a way to release your emotions that won’t hurt yourself or another. And, we need to find the love. Find the love that is you. Find the love that is God…Universe…Creator…Energy…whatever word works for you. Find it! It’s in you. It is the only thing that has the power to heal. Help others to find it within them. Rather than criticize and be mean, angry, hurtful…stop. Find the love. It is there. Dig deep. Breathe.
It’s been a rough day and what I am feeling is minor compared to these families whose lives have been affected in ways most of us will never know. A child who will never know his/her father, and children who will not remember their father as they are too young to do so. Wives who will grieve and will step forward to raise their children alone and live their lives without their partner. Parents who are grieving the loss of their sons, their babies. I pray they will find the love and allow that love to heal them.
So today, find your love within. Share it with someone who may need it. Share it with yourself too. Be gentle. Be kind. Notice your anger. Let it know you see it, you feel it, you know it is there. Then, work to heal it. This anger and division in our society is killing us. Literally. We need to heal. We need to love.
Peace.
