Where To Next?

Where to next?

Is tarted this post a couple days ago and had no idea what I was going to do with it. Ironic? Yes, but beautifully so.

See often, and recently as well, I’ve heard directed towards me that, “A plan must always be in place for everything you do. There must always be a dedicated direction.”

While I can understand the logic here, the practice of planning in order to garnish some sort of safe guard, planning doesn’t always work out.

There are times when someone plans all they can just to have it blow up back at them in the blink of an eye. Leaving them frustrated, hurt and/or angry with nothing left to do but ask, “Where to next?”

 

On a much more serious note however, due to the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas (yet another one in America, that could’ve been prevented) I feel many are now openly asking this question in terms of gun violence. “It happened again so…where to next?”

Lets go back a little while and travel to another country. Australia, 1996. A man entered a dinner, ate breakfast and then began shooting killing 36 people and injuring many more including tourists. Twelve days later, just twelve days after the incident, Australia banned shotguns and assault riffle type guns. Hasn’t been an incident like that since.

Many of us here have been advocating for betterment across the nation for a long time and we’ve not been heard. Gay rights, equal pay for men and women, better school systems and education funding, mental health benefits for veterans of all kinds, free healthcare…and so on.

It seems that the one thing that’s continuously stopped any kind of progress from happening, has been pride. A collective pride that blankets the United States with a false narrative. A blanket used to shield all those under it from any “monsters” that might not really be there and are just a figment of our paranoia.

It’s not about blame, it’s about responsibility. It’s a responsibility for all of us to come together to address. Not under cover but head on.

To hell with our pride! 

Leaders “elected” seem to only understand perceived progress of power; it’s an addiction. Pretty soon we’ll have nothing left standing, with even fewer understanding what truths we’re meant to stand for. Darkened souls, able to only perceive darkened skies; stuck in the middle of nowhere, the lost little boys like Lord of the Flies.

 

So, where to next? I think first, back to basics. Delve into the overlooked places in our humanity, move on from there. Decipher need and necessity. Just one step, that’s all we need to take in order to overcome our fears. Open our minds, eyes and ears; what follows is strength within our hearts once prideful fear clears.

-Gustavo Lomas