So I got a call from the disability insurance lady today. They have decided not to extend my claim at this point. I was really pissed off about it earlier. I definitely need that money. I plan on filing a complaint with the MN attorney general within the next couple of days. Hopefully I can get it extended if I really push for it.

I then heard about the shooting in Connecticut. It really puts things in perspective. What seemed like such a big deal in my life is, in reality, such an insignificant event. There are so many people as a result of that shooting who are having a much, much worse day than mine. My heart feels heavy just thinking about it. I can’t imagine the pain of those who lost a loved one, or even that of the ones that survived. I hope that someday soon we can have an honest discussion around gun control. Tragedies like the one today simply shouldn’t happen. I feel that we, as a society, need to do what needs to be done to put an end to them.

I remember the Columbine shooting. I’m not sure if the shootings weren’t happening before Columbine, or if I just wasn’t paying attention to them before then. I left school early that day and went home and watched the coverage on TV. I remember seeing some of the kids jump out of a window to escape the shooting and feeling such a sense of despair, and loss, that someone could do such a thing to others. Now it seems like there is never a significant length of time in between the shootings. Virginia Tech, Gabby Giffords, Aurora, Connecticut, etc. It just breaks my heart. Are we becoming desensitized to them? Seeing them in the news, but always somewhere much further away than our own place and time. Such unneeded bloodshed. How many lives were affected today? We know how many were lost, but will we ever truly be able to measure the full loss from such an event? The deep, personal struggle so many will now have to overcome?

I feel like republicans can’t leave the abortion topic alone. Constantly fighting, constantly pushing, constantly trying to change something so many of us believe is none of their damn business, but when it comes to gun control the democrats just leave it alone. Yet republicans feel like their right to bear arms is constantly under siege by liberals. Is it? My understanding is that there are no major moves to restrict or prohibit the right be bear arms. Admittedly, it’s something that could be happening that I’m just not aware of at this point, although I really don’t think it is. At least not the way republicans continue to fight against the right of women to exert their own free will over their own bodies. Perhaps it’s time we change that. I realize changing something written into the constitution is a major undertaking, but how many more need to die before something is done?