Computer Lives Matter!

My computer is going to be picked up at "repaired"--if possible--on Tuesday. I finally bit the bullet and made the call yesterday, foregoing the free walk-in that would have come with two bus rides, in favor of not having to go anywhere in the Winter Weather that's forecast for my area from now until at least the middle of next week. So we'll see how that goes. I have to tell you, I am quite dismayed by how the recent news--showing an unmitigated disrespect for human life--bodes for the disabled community in these coldest, hardest months of the year:( In fact the weather doesn't seem to be providing ANY insulation from malice. It used to be that during the winter we could all rest at least a little bit easy, knowing that a fair number of would-be law-breakers would opt to stay home in the warmth and not participate in any nonsense while there was ice and snow. Now, they're just moving their operations to the warmer climes! A mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh a week or so ago, just on the cusp of cold, has possibly inspired the ire of gun-toters in a bar on the other side of the country! I am so afraid of what this might mean for people who can't fend for themselves. Literally unable to run from trouble. Especially when the officially policy of many employers nationwide is that a disabled individual should be left behind in times of crisis, and "shelter in place" if they are going to slow their able-bodied co-workers down. At places like my church and this library, where the population is very diverse and FULL of people of varying abilities, who's going to help these people flee an active shooter? It makes a "broken" body want to just stay home and pretend the world does not exist. Frequently. Once in a while of course one must venture out, but this morning after news of another mass shooting in a public place, I found it very difficult to get out there and face what I had to face. Balance in the universe is the only thing I take consolation in. For every "renegade shooter" or terrorist who flies an airplane into the WTC, there are "renegade heroes" like the people on 9/11 who carried a woman in her wheelchair down 50 flights of stairs or something. Or there's the renegade hero teacher who shields her students or throws them out the windows:) As we head into winter, that's my prayer for this country. Let's help each other out. Let's ALL be renegade heroes for each other. And we don't need a crisis. I pray that a crisis ISN'T the only time the better angels of our nature take over. Shovel a driveway. Shovel a sidewalk! Scrape ice off the windows of a car parked in a disabled spot. Help somebody with a walker (ahem) cross the pock-marked street without getting her wheels jammed in a pothole. Salt is wonderful. Spread it around! Help somebody just to be nice. to them. Don't wait for them to ask. Do it because it's the right thing to do, and I promise to as well. That's the only way we'll all get through this hard season of our lives together.