(Listening to Al Jarreau and other slow jam jazzy type stuff....)

So a few days ago we witnessed more insane mindless human cruelty. After an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester England, right as the people were leaving, a young man of Libyan descent detonated himself killing 22 innocent concertgoers. Seems we get on with our lives after things like this happen and then just as we are getting comfortable thinking maybe the world isn't so bad as we recover from all the mental scars of life BOOM out of nowhere something happens again and....
and we go back to being scared,angry,miserable or in some cases you feel numb because now this shit happens so much it has become almost normal enough not to generate much of a reaction from us.

Earlier at work (a few hours ago) while walking around doing a patrol I felt those returning yet always present emotions rushing to the surface again as I noticed here in the gallery a memorial that was created for the victims of the Florida nightclub shooting last year. 49 people lost their lives and it was for no reason. Well I guess there was a reason. Pure blind and unreasoning hatred wanted to lash out and make others feel that same pain. They say he was a closeted gay or bi guy himself. He wasn't ugly. And he certainly wasn't stupid because alot of thought went into his devious actions. Here was a guy who could have gone to school and gotten a nice career going for himself. With his looks and outward masculine wiles he could have had his choice of many mates male or female. Yet he chose to infiltrate as well as investigate a culture with intent to kill and cause dissent or confusion. Then he pledges allegiance to radical islamists. Its pretty insane to me that so many Middle Eastern men are killing themselves in the name of something like religion or deities they worship. I often wonder how much good they could actually do with the money and resources they waste on this shit if they chose to contribute something that could help the human race. Instead they will be remembered as lunatics who left behind a legacy that no one seems able to wipe out. Someone told me the other day that the only solution is to just let it just play itself out. Basically he feels that eventually with time there will come reasoning and education along with a willingness to abandon such horrific ways of thinking. Everytime one of these persons does something it makes the news. Gives them some attention. Makes them feel they are serving a being or beings and it has been said a collective consciousness can actually give life to something bigger than a people. When people get together and pray they can actually heal someone who is ailing. Wouldn't it be something if there really was a being who was being kept alive soley by feeding off the crazy thought energy being generated from causing all these mass killings? When we worship people we certainly give them power don't we?  We pretty much give power to anything we worship. Our power.

People do bad things. Sometimes they come for us in our weakest most vulnerable moments. Attempting to stir up the nest. Sometimes its out of jealousy. Sometimes they can't let go of the past. And when we react....panicking....afraid to live our lives it really is like in a way we are worshipping them because we are giving them power. When we talk about them it means they exist. When we write about them it means they exist too I guess. Theres not really anyway to ignore whats right in front of us especially when it comes for you constantly in the night when theres noone around to help or understand. Sometimes the enemy becomes brave or smart enough to attack you in plain sight when people are around yet they have learned so well to do what they do one can even feel alone in the company of others. So now I understand why it is that bullying has such an allure to many.  Terrorism is just that then?

Why else would some strange person in or from a far off land want to kill me? Has the government of the land I live in done something shadey to anger these people? If that is the case then on the behalf of all of us I would like to apologize because like so many others I'm tired of seeing on the news this insanity. I am afraid that the end result will be like that one dream of me running from one corner of the world for the rest of my days trying to get away from the destruction of mankind constantly trying to destroy itself. With me being stuck in the middle of conflicts I neither understand nor wish to be a part of. We are tired of being angry. Tired of having to bury our loved ones who should have lived to a ripe old age. We are sick of this chaos. Sick of watching kids having their innocence stolen as they are shaped into freaking weapons missiles dying burning fragments acrid ashes blowing in a wind building building into a tornado swirling red bloodied body parts and lost hopes solutions loves never to be realized as they were ripped away into upwards into the heavens before they even truly learned to run or walk upon this earth. You are making all of us ALL of us out to be prodigal children.



(ARIANA GRANDE'S LETTER....)

My heart, prayers and deepest condolences are with the victims of the Manchester Attack and their loved ones.
There is nothing I or anyone can do to take away the pain you are feeling or to make this better. However, I extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours, should you want or need my help in any way.
The only thing we can do now is choose how we let this affect us and how we will live our lives from here on out.
I have been thinking of my fans, and of you all, non stop over the past week. The way you have handled all of this has been more inspiring and made me more proud than you’ll ever know. The compassion, kindness, love, strength, and oneness that you’ve shown one another this past week is the exact opposite of the heinous intentions it must take to pull off something as evil as what happened Monday.
YOU are the opposite.
I am sorry for the pain and fear that you must be feeling and for the trauma that you, too, must be experiencing.
We will never be able to understand why events like this take place because it is not in our nature, which is why we shouldn’t recoil.
We will not quit or operate in fear.
We won’t let this divide us.
We won’t let hate win.
I don’t want to go the rest of the year without being able to hold and uplift my fans, the same way they continue to uplift me.
Our response to this violence must be to come closer together, to help each other, to love more, to sing louder and to live more kindly and generously than we did before.
I’ll be returning to the incredibly brave city of Manchester to spend time with my fans and to have a benefit concert in honor of and to raise money for the victims and their families. I want to thank my fellow musicians and friends for reaching out to be a part of our expression of love for Manchester. I will have details to share with you as soon as everything is confirmed.
From the day we stared putting the Dangerous Woman Tour together, I said that this show, more than anything else, was intended to be asafe space for my fans. A place for them to excape, to celebrate, to heal, to feel safe and to be themselves. To meet their friends they’ve made online. To express themselves.
This will not change that.
When you look into the audience at my shows, you see a beautiful, diverse, pure, happy crowd. Thousands of people, incredibly different, all there for the same reason, music.
Music is something that everyone on Earth can share.
Music is meant to heal us, to bring us together, to make us happy.
So that is what it will continue to do for us.
We will continue in honor of the ones we lost, their loved ones, my fans and all affected by this tragedy.
They will be on my mind and in my heart everyday and I will think of them with everything I do for the rest of my life.
Ari.