Good Lord

Most of the time, 

people will not come out and say that they are good people 

in contrast to those who are not,

 but that is often what they mean. 

 And this strikes me as a dangerous proposition. 

History demonstrates, repeatedly, 

that if enough people begin to define themselves as “good” 

in contrast to others who are “bad,” 

those others come to be seen as less than human. 

Genocide is justified in the eyes of those who perpetrate it 

on the grounds that it is not real people who are being killed; 

rather, something evil is being eliminated from the world 

by those who are good.

Kathleen Norris

Being in a place that has historically known a strategic governmental attempt

at the extermination of a people -

at the time of a mass shooting of others 

who are also perceived as 'different' -

is a powerful place to talk about the realities 

of hatred and intolerance.

Contrary to what CNN and the Huffington Post would have you believe,

the Orlando tragedy, as sad and senseless as it may be,
 is NOT the deadliest and largest mass casualty shooting in US history...

that dubious honor would be the massacre at Wounded Knee.

On December 29, 1890, 
on Wounded Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota, 

a tangle of events resulted in the deaths of more than 250,

and possibly as many as 300, 
Native Americans 
at the hands of Federal soldiers. 

These people were guilty of no crime 

and were not engaged in combat. 

A substantial number were women and children.

 

It's appalling no matter which event you look at.

When is this country  -
when are we as its people -
going to grow up enough
to nurture every one in the nest -
despite our differences?