Thoughts on a Monday Morning

I find solace in my photography, and so today I'm showing you some photos taken earlier last week.  This Orange Crossandra is a new plant to me. I found it at Lowe's. The tag on the crossandra indicated that this plant will tolerate high heat and humidity, so it is perfect for my sunporch which really heats up in the afternoon sun. Orange is by far not my favorite color, but I do love this orange and green combo, and so far this pretty plant is doing great!

Also purchased was this curcuma which was a plant new to me last year.  I could spend oodles of time photographing this beauty. I wrote about curcumas last summer here and told where you could learn more about their care. I didn't winter over the bulb from last year, but I may try to do so this time.

Fair Warning: The pretty pictures end here. The rest of this post will be my reaction to the three massacres which occurred over the course of the last few days. If you do not want to finish reading this post, I understand and that is okay; I just feel compelled to write this.

When the innocent babes at Sandy Hook Elementary School were  gunned down, most sane people felt that now surely something would be done to end the gun violence destroying our country. We are not safe in our schools, in our places of worship, in concerts, or at festivals. Parents and children doing back to school shopping at a Walmart in El Passo, Texas,  were not safe on Saturday morning. 

I understand that people feel they have a right to own weapons. Statistics show that there are close to four million guns in our country. . . That's 4,000,000.   I understand guns owned by hunters and sportsmen. I understand some people's need to carry small firearms for personal protection. I get it. I do. But please tell me why anyone not in the military or law enforcement should be allowed to own an assault weapon. That's beyond insane.

I'm tired of excuses. Don't blame these atrocities on mentally unstable individuals. It's more than that.  It's an undercurrent of hatred, racism, and bigotry which has long been festering under the surface in our country.

What can we do? Vote our politicians in Washington OUT. But you say, some of these politicians are against gun violence and are for gun laws to be reformed. I would say that these politicians have not been strong enough to get the job done. Vote them OUT and any other politician of either party who is deep in the hip pocket of the NRA. The future of out nation is at stake. Failure to act will be the end of life as we know it in this the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

God help us all. 

*** Correction: I was way off. An article in the Washington Post reports that  the number of guns in our country is estimated to be close to four hundred million . . . 400, 000, 000.  ***