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What is Safe?
What is safe?
Where are we safe?
What do we do that can be considered safe or dangerous?
Who can we trust to protect us so we are safe? Even airplanes have to deal with crazy.
I’d take a police or sheriff or a 901 BLOC Squad anytime in 24 hours.
 It almost seems, in spite of the violence that goes on, it is safer to be locked up behind bars, than to be free. Is there safety in one’s home? or just driving down the street? or sending children to school, or going to church, or to pick up some bananas at the supermarket?
Even in crowded hospitals or in joyful Disney World, or fishing in a mountain stream, are we safe? Are all parents trustworthy and caring sufficiently so they can raise their own children, much less a pair of dogs or cats? How many kids return home from school each afternoon and there is no one there but them to wait till a parent or sibling arrives. Sometimes just fifteen minutes alone at home can invite a horrible drama that ends up in disaster.
Things have gotten so out of hand that we must think and worry about safety in our daily lives, like putting our children and grandchildren in places that could become in a split second a violent victim of gun shot. Yes, in homes and in schools and just about any public place, including super giant grocery stores, malls and rock concerts or theater outings, or sporting events - there is that fear that something could happen, yet more often than not, fear is ignored or pushed under the rug. Oh, it won’t happen to me or to mine.
What about football games and school proms? Has the innocent school prom become a twisted version of itself? Or Is there sufficient security in such important events to keep our children safe, able to have fun without worrying about some bomb or bomber or kid with a grudge, who has plans to sneak in to an event or a packed class room to hurt as many innocent children, teachers and just stray people who have gotten in their way. These fanatic youths have gotten easy access to weapons, probably poor or right-wing parents, and set out to avenge a grudge about life, family, sports, and schools, by trying to wipe out as many innocents as they can. Hence, no school nor an event at the school seems to be safe. No dance is safe. No football game on a Friday night is safe. The mentally ill, the jealous, the envious, the gang leaders are out there and so many parents don’t want to admit that maybe their own prodigy is walking a danger route and that nothing is safe from their acting in a violent, angry way. The worst are those men and women who covet, collect and swear by guns. it’s our right, they say, our privilege to carry weapons that can kill in a spit.
What about church? Why are there so many violent slaughters taking place in our churches, one place where peace and safety should be the norm. Did this happen in the time of us? I doubt it. And today’s killers aren’t necessarily members of those churches they decide to attack or destroy. Most times it is because sick minded white racists want to get back either at God, or African Americans, or Latins or Chinese, convinced only their white congregation worships God straight. Maybe they are jealous at the fact African-American’s and indigenous Native Americans owned this land that the Europeans claimed, yes stole, for themselves. Ironically, those who have suffered in the loss of their land, they still have a joyous faith and Great Spirit to celebrate God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit just like, if not better, then the invaders.
Why, in my home town, are churches still segregated? Maybe it’s not by choice but few cross the line from a black church to a white church, I suspect because there is just not enough joy and love and celebration and Jesus lifting in the formal white churches to praise God big time the way the black churches do. The Roman Catholic, the Anglican and Episcopalian, and surely the Orthodox are so formulated, so restricted that the only thing that is different each Sunday is the sermon and Biblical readings for that day. Everything else, the whole ceremony, is the same, from the same book, with the same sacraments of bread and wine either being sanctified them so they really are the body and blood of Christ, or just a wine and wafer celebration in memory of the death of Jesus. (I don’t know the regularity of Baptist or Presbyterian, but they are probably regimented as well. )
Go to an African American church and you find life, laughter, shout outs, wonderful hats, and music that beats most rock concerts. And it is rarely the same. I don’t hear so much these days about “holy rollers” or the extreme faiths that mess with snakes. And of course, the Mormons have strange beliefs and always walk in pairs trying to sell booklets to get someone’s attention.
But somehow, in someone’s distorted mine, there is an enemy out there wanting to get his or her ya-ya’s out by killing the evil ones for the image they have of the Lord. And we don’t know who that will be or where that one will come from.
Nothing is safe anymore. Not even driving on the freeways. In my home town, shootings on the interstate have gotten out of control. Cut in front of someone, or drive slower than another, and someone has no qualm about shooting at you through the car window. There are 480 incidents of serious violence at places of worship in US last year and those reasons usually had to do with hate crimes, personal disputes and neighborhood crime. usually gang-related or youth tempting to rob older folk leaving churches.
Equal, and horrifying, are those who tramp into schools, those giant buildings where our children are supposed to be safe, to be learning about life, to be planning for futures, to be celebrating football or basketball competitions and victories, and of course prom dances where, for so many, they enjoy their first dance. Until some freak arrives, drugs stuffed on him somewhere, and maybe even a gun in his pocket, and slaughters innocent kids. Or they bust through the door somehow armed with weapons no child should even be allowed to touch, but Dad had one, and eliminate our country’s future leaders and stars and fathers and mothers.
We cannot forget that there are men and women out there who are trained police, sheriffs , FBI, and law enforcement experts. They make promises to uphold the constitution and attempt to keep our cities and land safe. They are not all perfect, but they all take an oath and usually fall by the way side when they realize it is tougher than they are, and they are going to mess up, so they get out of the situation they cannot control. Most of them are incredible, generous and caring men and women. People, it seems, are too anxious to knock down our law enforcement men and women who vow to protect you and me no matter what, risking their own lives for ours, that it is making too many turns away from such a career.
What about pets? Are they abused or treated with kindness? So many dogs are bred to attack and kill each other to load down the owner with a healthy bank account, and when they are tossed out of the fold, those are extremely dangerous to someone they encounter. Thank God for shelters where animals are cleaned up and given a chance. Watch out for American Pit Bull Terriers. Police dogs are trained to corral fleeing criminals, smell out drugs, and anything that might be askew. Dogs learn to love their owners, who treat them right, and can interfere with some sort of danger, drama or possible tragedy that might be creeping up their doorsteps.
Now, with carjacking, 7-11 in and out kind of stores, gas stations, super stores - these are easy for the quickie criminal wanting a thrill. Even though there are sort of weary cameras in convenience stores and giant stores, what good do they do? Coronavirus was a God send to the kids who mask up to rob and steal and kill.
I guess what frightens me the most is fire. Anything to do with fire, including a good smelling candle, is not safe for me. Even the tiny candle I light when I do the Eucharist from Uruguay with my family worries me. And forget any kind of cozy winter wooden fire in some fireplace or outdoor bonfire. True, we all have our mental safety spaces and those moments when we fear and step back to a safe place when things are torn up, distorted or out of control. What is safe for me, might not be safe for you. And of course corona virus messed all security up when one had to choose wearing a mask or not, entering spaces where others are not wearing masks, and keeping a distance from people we love. Life is often, today, on the line.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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