14 June 2016 – An Act Of Terrorism

Sun: awoken to the sad news this morning and having lived and worked in Orlando for over a decade makes it another home for me there. Thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families and all those affected.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/index.html

49 killed at Orlando gay nightclub marks deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history

A plea to People on Planet Earth
Regardless of beliefs, culture, race, religion, sexual preference, etc
Why can’t we just accept and respect our difference?

Life is a gift to be celebrated
Differences to be appreciated
Compassion to be achieved…

Wrote this over a decade ago hoping for a more peaceful tomorrow, but peace still seems out of reach 🙁

Good to meet up with Susan, Jay and their kids who have been and still is living in Niger, Africa for the past 5yrs. The last time we met was in 2002-03 when they were en route to ? via SIN. They stayed with me then and poor Susan was ill. They were in UFMed School with Jeff and then together in OKCity for internship. Today there is Anna, Samuel, Sara and Johnathan Kraus (easier to train the memory when you write!) who are the same ages as #2-5 (with numbers, the names will not get mixed-up 🙂 ). Here are 2 wonderful couples who are now middle-age! and doing good jobs to raise their flock of 9!!

Can understand why we address our aunties and uncles by numbers, especially when they are up to the count of 18, and not kidding!

Mon: the kids are at VBS except for #2 who is with her friend at Carowinds, an amusement park in SC/NC state-line. In this heat and humidity how does one survive in the outdoor rides?

Not dealing well with all the hate and politicizing of this tragic event and not my usual self. The Monday Blues + what just happened in Orlando was just too much that even words cannot console the hopelessness feelings as to if PEACE can ever be achieved. Was it just an idealistic era with John Lennon’s Imagine and the Hippie Flower Power to think that it is possible???

Hippies was about being happy, but what made it bad was when drugs such as marijuana and LSD were integrated into their culture as a means to explore altered states of consciousness. Some argue that the movement ushered in more liberal press and movies which has led to a degradation of our cultural values and ethics. And the embrace of spontaneity and worship of the ‘primitive’ have turned many towards mindlessness and violence – some points to reflect on!

So what kind of era are we in now?????  Not referring to technical or geological terms! In circumstances when God is mentioned in any of my postings, it is not referring to any religion but to a higher power or omnipotent.

Monday, Monday, so good to me
Monday mornin’, it was all I hoped it would be
Oh Monday mornin’, Monday mornin’ couldn’t guarantee
That Monday evenin’ you would still be here with me… The Mamas & The Papas