It’s happened again.
It’s happened on multiple fronts in one week.
An attempted church shooting in Kentucky, foiled by locked doors, still results in two dead in a nearby grocery store.
Pipe bombs mailed to prominent Democratic leaders, including 2 former Presidents, and critics of the current “president”. (quotation marks intentional)
And now a massacre by a deluded, angry, bigoted gunman in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, my hometown. I knew it was only a matter of time until this plague of gun violence hit close to home. Way too close. One, and possibly two, of the shooting survivors are people I know.
Our bigot in chief riles up his base. Makes sly comments about violence against those who disagree with him and do not give him the “credit” he believes he deserves. He calls the press “the enemy of the people” and equates desperate migrants fleeing violence in their own countries with an army. He flings words out into the crowds like lit sticks of dynamite and dares them to use them, then claims he did not ask for this action. How can you blame him?
I do blame him.
I blame him for creating the conditions that put one of the kindest, caring people I know in a hospital room fighting for his life. I hope he survives, because the world will be a poorer place without him. I blame our enabler in chief for amplifying the injustice that has caused the deaths of school children, of POC just going about their lives, of people in their place of worship. Each time an attack of this or greater magnitude occurs, those in thrall to the NRA and their contributions say, “now is not the time. Don’t politicize this tragedy.”
But when one tragedy follows on the heels of another, when they pile up like bumper cars at a macabre amusement park, when IS the time? I think the time is now.
Vote like lives depended on it, because they do.
Stop the chaos and VOTE!!!
And now, let there be pandas…
Be the Bear
Bob T Panda
I hope your friend is okay. Churches and synagogues are supposed to be places of peace. Some day they will be again, no thanks to 45. I hope I live long enough to see civility again. It will take a long time to undo the damage.
Thank you. No new news right now, but I will post something here or on the Fezbook when I hear anything new. Hopefully good news.
I hope we live long enough to repair the damage, too.
I have never commented online before, but I feel I have to now. Anne, you are so brave to speak the truth!
Panda On.
Welcome to the Pandasphere! It’s not easy to put myself out there, and speak about these serious topics, but I’m glad it resonated with you.
Panda On!
I am so sorry. I have been just floored by all of what has happened over this weekend. We had two incidents of hate crimes in the neighborhood where I used to teach. One individual was caught, but I have heard nothing more on the second crime. Both crimes were hate graffiti on a prominent Jewish Center building.
I hope your friend recovers, but I cannot get the others out of my head.
The person to blame for all of this lies at the door of one person who has abused the power of his office. He has betrayed all Americans by his stirring of hate, violence, and racism.
I am just grieving.
Hug your friends close, have a cuppycake, and know that I am with you.
And I voted October 22–Blue all the way!
It just never stops, does it? The permission to commit acts of hate comes from the top. I voted, I’m glad you voted too and I hope enough people vote blue to contract all the dirty tricks that the Republicans are are pulling to restrict voting. I’m listening to Rachel Maddow as I type this. She gives me hope, but I am still very anxious for our country.
I pray for your friend and all the victims of this latest massacre. Thanks for what you have written above, Bob T. Your words are what have been going through my mind this past week and I didn’t know how to say them so eloquently. Yes, so much damage has been done and I see it manifested in so many aspects of my life, not just political. People are acting differently… so many are meaner and so many are depressed. This weekend I filled out my absentee ballot and I hoped it would make me feel better, but it didn’t. Thank you for continuing to bring us pandas and laughter. Because if I don’t laugh I will cry. We must vote to change this!
I am far more nervous about the outcome of this election than I was 2 years ago. Probably because I had no idea about how bad it was going to get and how quickly.
An update on my friend, he is still in the hospital in critical condition, but I spoke to a mutual friend who told me, his wife was not on the premises when the attack happened, so she has not been injured, although I’m guessing she is stressed beyond imagining. Also that they are expecting him to recover, so I will hold that thought and hope the prayers of the nation will help this to be so.
I will continue to rage and to write and draw pandas to help us get through the travesties that Mittens and his ilk have brought into existence.
And if that was not enough, I find out today that our beloved Gao Gao has been sent back to China. Injury to injury.
Gao Gao? What??
I just found out a couple of hours ago. I thought the person was mistaken, but I found the news stories. They pretty much snuck him out with no notice to the public. SDZ made some vague comments about changes in directions, so I am afraid after Wu and Bai Yun’s contracts end next year, they will have no pandas.
Bubba and Ping as spy’s. Perfect. Hopefully Ping can run fast in his puppy onesie. 🙂 I keep hoping that just ONE person in the now-tainted White House will turn “state’s witness” for Mueller before it is too late.
Ping is as fast as the wind in his puppy suit! I would never let Mittens or his evil minions catch them. Unlike reality, I can keep all my pandas safe.
Two long, horrible years. When I hear the latest news and fear things will never be good again you post another adventure in Pandyland and I find myself smiling and the glimmer of hope flickers just a bit in my heart and soul. Two things have made me smile and laugh lately: re-reading “don’t call me boo boo” seeing Bubba stick out his tongue when his sister is in trouble and today’s panel with Bubba and Ping as spies gathering information as they spy on Mittens. Thank you!
And just wait till we get to have a certain Supreme Court Justice being eaten by bears! Fun for the whole family!