I rode to work this morning and it was gorgeous! About 65 degrees when I left at 7 am, the Lake was relatively calm and the number of riders is picking up. My muscles are slowly adjusting - I had a decent time of 61 minutes. I felt a nice spray from the waterfall at McCormick Place, which was refreshing as I forgot my water bottle.
I attended a Remembrance and Recommitment Service at my church last night that capped a year of awareness of all of the gun deaths of CPS students during the school year. There were almost 80 young people who lost their lives. Very sad. There are also about 250 kids injured but not killed in a typical year. We lit candles for each on Sundays, read names, and prayed for peace. Now we are looking at what we can do to help.
There are two pertinent websites that you can go to in an effort to help - I am sure that there are other ongoing efforts that need support also. These two are www.fixgunchecks.org, which is a petition to ask Congress to amend the law to require a background check for each and every gun that is purchased; and www.ceasefirechicago.org, which is an organization working to proactively implement strategies to reduce the level of violence in Chicago neighborhoods. See if either draws your participation, or find another way to help - please.
Our society seems to be turning to a more violent one with each passing year. Recently Wisconsin, of all places, passed a law approving the carrying of concealed weapons. If I heard the NPR broadcast correctly, Illinois is the only state left without such a law. Why is this necessary? Are we returning to the Wild West with shootouts? Statistics show that people who keep guns in their homes are much more likely to kill a loved one by accident than to harm an intruder on purpose.
A favorite old sweatshirt of mine from St. Ben's Church in Milwaukee has the saying "There can be no peace without justice." That is so true. If we would invest our energies and resources in justice issues, the perceived needs for having guns would be eliminated.
The NRA is one of the biggest lobbying organizations in the country, if not the largest. They spend millions of dollars to make sure the laws enable the owning and use of all sorts of weapons. Wouldn't it be nice if, now since they seemed to have achieved their goals, they would start investing in justice issues in our country, such as education, jobs, and health care?
About as likely as the day when schools have all the money they need to provide quality education to all children and the Defense Department has to have a bake sale to make ends meet.
Take care.
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