@skieurope – Right. Exactly. Do not consider the motives and reasons for why these terrible things are happening. We can attribute them to, oh, I don’t know, cycles of history, or fate, or, …[insert shrug emoji.] Or like I said in my first comment, we can pretend. I’m glad you are supporting that!
And of all the things to think about, it keeps running through my mind that Mr. Rogers was from this neighborhood and how profoundly sad and shocked he would be…
@bamamom2021 - talking with my 30 year old adult daughter yesterday and she feels things are so dismally bleak - I feel for her, her generation, and the ones under her. She is voting, and voting wisely. However she isn’t able to see any light on the other side of the tunnel. My heart is breaking for us all. No exceptions.
The victims’ names and ages have been released: 54 to 97. Include two men who were brothers and a married couple.
One of the victims was a Holocaust survivor.
I was at shul yesterday saying kaddish for my mom. Our administrator (who I worked with until recently) came running in during services and pulled our security committee chair out of the sanctuary to lock down the doors. We found out why after services.
What also scares me is that we have two Soanish-speaking congregations who rent space in our shul. I worry for their safety in and out of our building.
Strangely, it feels like my Jewish son is safer in Ukraine than here right now.
About 25 years ago I vacationed with some Israelis. Every morning they would check the news to see if and where terrorist attacks had happened at home. One morning the discussion with their family in Israel was about whether the latest cafe bombing near their house had injured anyone they knew. I remember thinking “How can people live like that, under constant stress?” Now I know. It’s like the frog in the boiling pot analogy. You start off thinking, “Wow, that was horrible! It can never happen again!” and before you know it you’re thinking, “Another whacko hurting a bunch of innocent people, no real action in the wake of tragedy. What else is new?” =((
Thoughts and prayers don’t really do anything. So, what are you, each one of you, going to do about it? For the record, I’ve asked myself this same question and have my answers and a game plan. Hope each of you will formulate one, too. Now is the time. Action in numbers brings change.
@doschicos – surely you know me well enough to know that that was not actually what I meant. Do I need to turn the sarcasm button up farther? 
I would like to hear some ideas of action we can take. This was actually on my mind yesterday, “what can I do?”
Good for her for being involved and working for what she believes in.
The little secret about canvassing is that most people you talk to, even people who oppose the candidate or issue you support, are nice. More than a few people say, “I support but good for you for being involved.”
(Then there are the few other folks, and they’re not pleasant. One angry woman yelled after me yesterday, “The people in have nothing better to do than knock on doors.” Funnily enough, a few doors later I encountered a flyer from my candidate’s opponent. I guess the other party has nothing better to do than knock on doors, either.)
At my synagogue we have security at the electronic gate. You need to have a parking sticker to be allowed in. We have security at a desk inside. These are Chicago PD that work here part time. We just honored our security detail at a sukkot event I chair. We even had the mayor write a nice letter about each of the 4 of them. Many are 30 year veterans of the force. We also have lanyard ID cards. There is an elementary and middle school also. Everyday there are multiple events. It’s one of the largest congregations.
Even with all that, someone could get in and start shooting. Maybe the security detail could curtail the amount of people killed.
We received an email last night that Chicago PD would have extras forces to help with security today. There are many events. This is just the world we live in.
My sons high school has had id lanyards and security sensors like at the airport, that you have to get scanned prior to entry. There is also a security guard right inside. Again this is the world the kids are used to now.
The whole month of October has been very stressful newswise. I’m kind of a news junkie. I have the news on most of the time when I’m at home, and I regularly check online when I’m at school. I’m starting to feel like it’s unhealthy having so much of it. For my own sanity, I’ve started consciously turning it off at least some of the time and trying to focus on work or peaceful pursuits.
What can I do? In my classes I now teach that such things are wrong. Killing people because they disagree with you or cut you off in traffic or are going out with your ex or look different or ______ is just plain wrong.
I do this lightheartedly so it’s not a boring lecture, but I openly say something to the effect of, “Apparently this message is getting missed with too many people so I want to make sure none of you have that gap in your education. Killing people for anything other than true self-defense is wrong. Helping others as we go along in this world is right.”
It actually can often lead to a few minutes of discussion. Kids do seem to need to process some of these basics. I think sometimes we forget that and assume everyone must know the obvious. Not really. Many humans need to be taught empathy and how to see things from another’s pov. We’re a self centered species by “human” nature. (Some naturally have empathy, but not everyone.)
Never decline an opportunity to be polite and kind.
In terms of “what action can you take” – even after the election, there are many volunteer groups needing help, and that type of work can be very fulfilling. Don’t be an observer.
In regard to what our 30-ish-old children have grown up with – in addition to Columbine, Sandy Hook, and so on and so forth, they also grew up with 9/11. This has been a terrible couple of decades.
I think we have all grown up with terrible things. That goes for my 90-year-old mom, me (age 57), my 20-something daughters, and children born today, and everyone in between. Acknowledge the terribleness and try to help people through it.
I’ve turned off all news channels most of the time. A constant barrage of it is not healthy in my opinion. And the so called commentary is just too vitriolic to endure.
@doschicos “Thoughts and prayers don’t really do anything.” That was my first thought when I started to read this thread; thankfully, @garland clarified "Do I need to turn the sarcasm button up farther? "
At this point in time, I don’t know what it is going to take to push back on the hatred and violence that is sweeping this nation. Individually, we can make small steps, even a simple act of civility and kindness, such as ‘good morning’ to a stranger you pass in the street, might pierce the armor or brighten a lonely person’s day. Small steps…
It’s sort of ironic, given this discussion, that many threads on CC are closed due to incivility and name calling. Those small steps at improving the mood in the country can begin for us right here.