So much in the world today is making me sad, or angry, or frustrated. Hate-filled maniacs with guns, hate-filled maniacs running for president, hate-filled maniacs buying politicians – you know, so they can ensure that hate-filled maniacs can continue to acquire guns…

It can be so tempting to climb back into bed, turn on Netflix, and tune it out. Or we can drown in the rhetoric coming at us from all sides. There are no easy answers and ignoring it is no longer an option.

I feel so raw lately. Do you feel raw? My husband and I were in Orlando two weeks ago. It was his first visit and he had never been to a theme park, so we made that part of the trip. We are still in that early phase of returning when people ask us how our trip was. Now it feels almost wrong to talk about the wonderful time we had there.

Now when I think of Orlando my heart breaks for all those young lives – those promising futures cut short. The families and friends grieving for their loved ones. I’m tearing up while I’m writing this, but at the same time I am angry at the powers that be that allow this to continue happening.

What will it take for them to wake up? To realize that the US has, itself, become extremist? That the Constitution is more than the Second Amendment, and that their defense of the Second Amendment has begun infringing on our other rights? Our right to “domestic tranquility”, for example? What about “general welfare”?

I may not leave this up – I am sad and needed to say this, but maybe I don’t need to say it out loud. Maybe this isn’t the place. Or maybe every place is the place. Maybe we all need to say it, and keep saying it, everywhere we can as often as we can, until enough of us say it that we are heard, and something is done.

If we are going to survive as a nation, we can’t keep living like this.