#halfstaff

[bvar]

Flags in New Jersey are at half-staff today in recognition and mourning of Air Force Captain Kelliann Leli, 30, of Parlin, NJ, who died Nov. 27 in a non-combat incident at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. Captain Leli was on her first deployment. See nj.gov/state/dos-flag-status.shtml for information about why state flags are at half-staff. (at New Milford, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIV-41CDBBz/?igshid=mioppa65q2jg

[wordssplatteredoncement]

We Can Do Better

**Disclaimer: I am an uneducated, community college drop out who is expressing nothing more than an opinion. If you’re reading this, you’re clearly a friend, have nothing else better to do, or both. Read with caution.

I’d been working on this blog for the better part of a year. No matter how many times I came back to it, I never felt comfortable releasing it. Then, reading the words to myself, I took my own advice and expressed how I truly felt. What you’re reading is a touched up blog that I feel should be read, irregardless of how you feel afterwards...

The flag sits at half-staff for the 19th, 20th, 23rd (clearly things kept escalating as 2018 continued) time this year. Another student went on a rampage and decided to eliminate several of their classmates. Another press conference about the tragedy that occurred. “Thoughts and prayers” being offered to the victims and their families. We rinse and repeat until the blood remains on our hands and hope no one notices as we hold our hands under the faucet for the umpteenth time. We tried to pass the buck on the “decaying” society that surrounds us, and offer “thoughts and prayers” in hopes it all goes away. We raise the flag, then are prompted to lower it again. We can do better...

I can’t speak for your household, but I grew up in a home where violence was rarely seen as a bad thing. I could sit and watch as people were shot, stabbed, maimed, and decapitated.. but a titty or a dick pops out from behind clothes and I was told to turn my head. Something about this never sat well with me. I could watch countless deaths, in a million different ways, but the second anything that could be viewed as sexual came on the screen, that wasn’t okay? Death, GOOD!! Life, BAD!!!! It wasn’t just my parents, or even their generation that acts in this way. I’ve spoken and witnessed this among friends my age that have kids of their own. It was through this realization that I came to realize our culture values it’s own Christian beliefs more than the education of our own children. We can do better...

Maybe, instead of worrying about your kids getting an erection, or moist (how many people cringed over that word, eh?) over seeing a body part, we educate? We tell the children why they’re feeling they way they do when they see a naked person on the screen. Why we should wince when a person riddled with bullets. Why it’s okay to believe differently than the way we do, and that differences shouldn’t lead to hate. In my opinion, a western (read: Christian) belief system that has failed us time and time again. If we turn a blind eye to it, it goes away. Instead of turning your children’s head away, either don’t have them watch at all, or.. I don’t know.. EDUCATE THEM! Jesus-fucking-christ (Christian name), take a look around you. You’re turning your children’s head away from a television screen did not stop the countless unwanted pregnancies that surround us, and have for as long as someone realized they could put a boner in the ham-wallet. Instead of ignorance, we should just talk to our kids. Tell them the rights from wrongs. Not the bullshit we read in an archaic book, or constitution written by forefathers who knew nothing of the future, but TALK to your kids about the climate of the world we currently live in. We can do better...

Now I know a few of you are fuming. You’ve got Trump’s Cheeto-colored, NRA-funded prick in your mouth.. and you’re mad that I would even point a finger in the direction of a parent who believes that the Constitution, Bible, and other text written in a time long passed are gospel. But please, get mad. Get upset. It’s better I point a finger at you, than your kid point another barrel at a fellow student. You value your text in a bible and a Constitutional right more than you do the life of a child. That isn’t opinion. I’m seeing this daily. If this a moment of rage makes you think, even for just a moment, I’ve done my job. Again, I’m an uneducated, middle-aged, heathen of a man who doesn’t have any children, and even I can see that we have a problem. WE CAN DO BETTER!!

[bvar]

Flags at #halfstaff in my #hometown, and across #newjersey, in remembrance of #911 this weekend. (at Borough of New Milford) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiVNn4iLhwe/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dcrue]

A Texas sunset at half staff Fuck Abbot #atx #Austin #AustinTexas #halfstaff #Texas #sunset #America #texassky #Texassunset #blue https://www.instagram.com/p/CeLyEjFLPvq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dcrue]

A Texas sunset at half staff Fuck Abbot #atx #Austin #AustinTexas #halfstaff #Texas #sunset #America #texassky #Texassunset https://www.instagram.com/p/CeKhHx8oNdt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dcrue]

Merica #flag #halfstaff #sunday #sunset #chemtrails #airplane #atx #Austin #AustinTexas #nikonnikkor #nikon #nikonz7ii #nikonphotography https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdn4n8bLG_f/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[rcgraves]

Ending near the beginning, a peaceful random walk around Northfield on a peaceful official Sunday with a million dead, mostly needlessly, this afternoon. #HalfStaff #TerriersOfInstagram #AmericanBully #PeaceOfficersMemorialDay #MayFlowers ⚜️ (at City Hall) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdl-fMBum7T/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[pierredechambery]

#halfmast #halfstaff #lochlomondsailingclub https://www.instagram.com/p/CdSeOocoQll/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=