Another shooting in another school....writers' block is over.

Hi Steve,

Sorry about the interruption yesterday.  Hope your week is going well so far.  Mine is rather strange.  I don't know how to pinpoint exactly what...but something is going on in the cosmos.  I mean, I feel restless, I feel like I need to be SAYING something important, before it's too late.  I don't know why I feel like this, but it's been nagging at me for awhile and I'm really not sure how to proceed with it.

I have deliberately avoided discussing the whole gun issue here, because, well, you're like a safe haven for me to run to, away from the world and reality and all the crap that goes with it.  I don't like bringing reality with me when I come here to chat with you, but sometimes it just appears anyway, whether I like it or not.  But this issue is so huge, and so complex, and so overwhelming....I just feel like something has to be SAID about it that makes a difference.  SOMEBODY has to come forward and put some LOGIC and REASON into a civil discussion between both sides.

All my life, when I was a kid, I thought adults were smarter than me...I learned long ago that illusion I once clung to and felt secure about, just doesn't ring true so much anymore.  I am sickened and saddened to the point of heartbroken over the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, even now, as we all should be.  Some people out there are actually calling it a HOAX, brought on by OBAMA, to take everybody's GUNS AWAY FROM THEM.  The "parents" were all ACTORS, the kids were all UNHARMED, it was all FAKE.

These people who claim such a thing, have a very difficult time dealing with reality.  They don't WANT to believe that such a thing actually happened, just like a lot of people out there claim that the Holocaust didn't happen---it's just beyond anything anybody can imagine, and it hurts too much to think about the reality of it---so as a protective cocoon, they are in shock and disbelief, and they need a scapegoat to blame it on, something to PROVE that it is all just a hoax, they grasp at any straw they dig up out of nothing, and cling hard and fast to it, to save their own sanity.  They won't allow it to sink in. It's a defense mechanism, and it's understandable.  We all want safety and security, we all want to believe that it didn't happen.

We all want to believe that people are "really good at heart," like Anne Frank believed.  When that core belief of our society is threatened by something as horrible as the systematic state-sponsored genocide of millions---or, more easy for most people to comprehend, just 20 young innocent kids being killed for no reason, a week before Christmas---shot repeatedly, parts of their bodies missing, their tiny bodies sprawled in blood all over the floors of that school...

Our belief system is crumbling all around us, every day, and we all feel so helpless.  So lost.

My problem is, I let everything sink in.....and deeply.  To the core of my soul.  And it rips through my heart and shreds it every time.  I know I'm not alone.  Some people just react to it differently.  Some just cannot let it sink in to their hearts like that, it's just too horrifying.  So they would rather believe it didn't REALLY happen.  It's not that they are deliberately disrespecting those who were killed, nobody wants to see young, innocent children be annihilated like that.  They really don't mean to sound callous, they don't mean to sound like they are conspiracy theorists with tin foil hats.  They just cannot deal with it in any other way.  They don't know how.

None of us know how.  It's never happened before.  At least, not in our lifetime, not in this country.

I still have a very difficult time wrapping my head around 9/11.  Some people claim that THAT was also a government sponsored HOAX, meant to make GW Bush more popular as a war president.  So make up a war, and TAH DAH, he'll be thought of as a hero.  Right?  Wrong.  Three thousand, five hundred people---innocent people---were murdered that day.  And believe me, it was REAL.  I was there, less than one mile from the Pentagon.  I heard the crash of the plane.  I saw the black smoke.  I heard the sirens, the people screaming, I witnessed all of it first hand.  It was NOT a hoax.

The Holocaust was NOT a hoax.  Columbine was NOT a hoax.  The shooting TODAY IN CALIFORNIA AT ANOTHER SCHOOL, was NOT a hoax.  It's all very horribly REAL, but in order for ANYBODY to come to terms with themselves, and their own illusions of people who are always "good at heart," that suddenly crash and burn----until we ALL learn that we EACH have the same capacity for good as we do for evil----nobody will ever be able to sit down and have a civil discussion.  If it doesn't sink in to your heart FIRST, if it doesn't affect you personally, and rip your heart out in sorrow----you just will not be able to jump that hurdle of security that you want to cling to.

It is a leap of faith.  It has to be made, by all of us.  No matter WHAT you think about the Second Amendment, or gun laws, or any other politicized issue that surrounds these horrible events.  Your stance, your opinion, matters NOT unless you FEEL IT, unless you UNDERSTAND IT, and ACCEPT that it most certainly DID happen, and it was NOT a hoax or a conspiracy.

People are saying, "Well, Hitler set fire to his own Reichstag, to put the blame on Jews so that he could publicly justify targeting them," and frankly, comparing these events to HITLER, is so wrong on so many different levels that I don't know where to start with it.  Never EVER minimize Hitler and what he did, but recognize and REALIZE that HE WAS NOT ALONE.  He was one man, sure, but he had THOUSANDS OF FOLLOWERS.  He did not kill ONE JEW himself.  Not one.  He never pulled a trigger to shoot a Jew.  He never pushed the Zyklon B pellets through the metal netting into the gas chambers to kill them.  He never loaded any of the dead concentration camp victims into an oven himself either.

And history has proven time and time again, that 90% of the people in this country are REACTIVE.  They follow what they are told, like a bunch of SHEEPLE who cannot seem to think for themselves. "What do we DO about this man named Hitler? How can we stop him?"  How, indeed, when our society---in this world, ALL OF US----created him.

We----as a human race----each and every goddamned one of us-----create our own monsters.  This world and the cruelty of it CREATED ADOLF HITLER.  This world CREATED Adam Lanzer.  This world created the Columbine shooters.  This world created the shooter in California TODAY.  You cannot pinpoint exactly the very moment when it happened, or what exactly caused the person to do what he did----all of these shootings were perpetrated by MEN, by the way----so what the hell is going ON with our young men???

THAT should be the question we grapple with.  I just watched a movie with Sal Mineo in it, where hoodlums in the city were in gangs, and the leader, Frankie, wanted to kill an old man who narked on his friend and got him arrested.  This young man, Frankie, from 1956----is still our Adam Lanzer.  Still. After DECADES of opportunities to CHANGE that fact for the better----for some reason, it has only gotten worse.  WHY are so many young people so ANGRY???  WHY are they so DESPERATE to be NOTICED that they KILL somebody just so they appear on national televised news programs??

Negative attention.  That's why.  They receive nothing but negativity from those around them. YOU and ME, you know, we may not always REALIZE the negativity that we produce ourselves on a daily basis, but they do.  Those kids DO.  And they learn that "if I'm just ignored whenever I'm being good, but get attention when I do something bad," they're going to want to be bad ALL THE TIME.  And when it becomes a dysfunctional addictive habit----it's too late to save them.  They are lost.

Nobody wants to take away the Second Amendment rights of Americans.  Nobody.  And it seems to me that nobody is listening to either side of the issue.  They are all too busy being REACTIVE, and spewing NEGATIVITY at each other---which is the fucking CAUSE of all these monsters in the first place.

It's a sick and twisted situation.  It's dysfunctional as hell.  It makes my skin crawl.  It hurts my heart.

So I'd like to say, on behalf of most decent, normal, law-abiding voters who pay their taxes and do their jobs every day, and try to be the best parents they can possibly be-----to both sides of the gun law issue:

SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LISTEN TO EACH OTHER!!!!!!

I have HAD IT with the venom.  I am sick to DEATH of the name calling, the comparisons to Hitler, the bullshit that each side tosses out at each other defensively.  I'm tired of the politics involved.  I want to bitch-slap every politician across the face HARD, and make them LISTEN to THE PEOPLE, whom they have all seemed to lose touch with over the years.

We the People, are tired of kids killing other kids in our schools.  We are angry.  We are devastated.  We are all in pain.

Every one of us feels the shattered world of Newtown Connecticut.  We all feel the heartache of those who have lost everything in Hurricane Sandy.  We are hurting when anyone loses a child for any reason, anywhere, because it could have been OUR CHILD just as easily.  It is random cruelty, brought on by ANGER and NEGATIVITY that is only fuel to the fire.

More guns is NOT the solution.  Stricter RULES about who can HAVE those guns, just might help.  Neither answer is foolproof. Neither side has come up with any other solution but those so far. There HAS TO BE other options.  

So, I am not asking----I am DEMANDING that everybody just stop with the bullshit, sit down, and BRAINSTORM ABOUT IT TOGETHER before the whole fucking country kills each other out of stupidity and mindless drone idiocy of those who expect to be spoon-fed the facts instead of doing their CIVIL DUTY AS AN AMERICAN to GET INVOLVED and DO SOME RESEARCH ABOUT IT and find those answers for YOURSELVES.  We are Americans.  We have had tougher problems before, we'll face tougher problems again, but we have always ALWAYS come TOGETHER to find a solution.  It may not always be the BEST solution, but it is something we MORALLY have an OBLIGATION to do, as a human being.

Throw the name-calling, petty, playground bully attitudes out the window.  Stop comparing Hitler to Obama, and anyone who wants stricter gun laws.  Stop yelling so loud that nobody is listening to the CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD who are HURTING AND NEED US TO SAVE THEM.

I am sickened by this country's inability to work together as ADULTS to solve a problem.  I am disgusted, and angry about it.  I am beyond angry.  I will NOT sit by and be complacent about it.  I will NOT just remain silent and hope that "they" solve it amongst themselves.  I will NOT just let it go and hope for the best.  NOT DECIDING ABOUT SOMETHING, IS STILL A CHOICE.

So stop reading this stupid ass blog to Steve Perry---a man who COULD use his fame to SAY SOMETHING IMPORTANT, if he really wanted to, about all that is happening around us.  A man who COULD start singing about POSITIVE THINGS once again, but doesn't seem to want to.  Apathy is also a choice.  This guy, this wonderful awesome singer that I love with all my heart, is silently complacent, and as much as I adore him, I really just don't understand how he could be....or why he wants to be, silent.

I don't know if he gave up on all of us, like I did on 9/11, after his closest friends beat him bloody with, and then took away, the one thing he loved most in the world...I know just how devastating that is, and if that is the reason why he remains silent, in the face of adversity, believe me, I do understand.

But now is NOT the time to sit back and do nothing.

Get off the blog, get away from the computer games, and GO DO SOMETHING about this world of ours.  Nobody else is there to save it---there IS NO SUPERMAN, there IS NO BATMAN, there IS no SUPER HERO, except you and me.

We created this shit, every last damned one of us, whether silent or not.  We created these hurting children who are angry and festering and needing positive reinforcement and quality time and loving attention from their parents, teachers, and friends.  We all created these problems we face now.  So who is going to figure out the answers?

Certainly not those gun nuts (like Ted Nugent) who are yelling their fool heads off, with inaccurate statistics, and "more more more" guns as the answer.  He's not going to solve it like that. The crazy dude who yelled at Piers Morgan and wanted to have him deported for his views on the Second Amendment----he's certainly not going to solve anything, but giving himself a heart attack from his tirades of lunacy.

So who the FUCK has the BALLS ENOUGH to stand up and SCREAM that they have HAD ENOUGH, and get a civil discussion started, where both sides are heard, where people can weigh in, and come up with better solutions???

I do.  And I am.

Sure, I'm just a schlub in Pittsburgh, who once had a life and a career doing something noble and positive to save the world.  I taught about the dangers of stereotypes, prejudice, hatred and anti-Semitism.  My mistake was giving UP on the world after 9/11 when hate stared me right in the face...and with PTSD, nightmares, anti-depressants, unemployment, eviction, car repossesion, and suicidal thoughts----I focused on ME, and remained silent for a decade myself, as I licked my wounds and hid away from the world.  I am just as guilty as everyone else.

Steve Perry, you've sat on your dead ass long enough.  You've done this very same thing that I have done.  Now it's time to get up, and fight one more battle before you die.  Sing about how the world creates its own monsters.  Sing about how you'd like to kick everyone's ass who cannot seem to listen to each other's differing views without resorting to juvenile tactics.  Sing about the innocence lost in those dead children in Newtown.  Sing about a world you WANT to see, a BETTER world, than what we have right now.

It's a brand new year.  Let's have a clean slate, let's get busy, and DO SOMETHING.  Sing anything your gorgeous heart desires, my friend, just sing ANYTHING that matters to you, and believe me, as "inconsequential" as you might THINK those words you sing might be to people----background music to their lives, not really something IMPORTANT that MATTERS----(Oh, I know you have had these thoughts)---as much as you might THINK those things, you are WRONG. Dead fucking WRONG.

Do I have to Google your home address, show up on your damned doorstep and smack you upside the head in person? When it's much easier to TYPE IT ON MY BLOG instead?!

Don't put it past me.  I am unpredictable.

I guess I am just asking you, Steve Perry, to get out there and sing----not to make money for yourself, not to win a stupid "pissing" game with your buddies in Journey, not to prove anything to anybody-------but to HELP US ALL with your words of wisdom---you're just like the rest of us, feeling helpless and lost, and sad about these things, I know you are. We can sit here and yell and scream and write longwinded crap on the internet, but nobody really sees it or hears it.  YOUR VOICE, however, everyone hears, and loves, and will listen to.

Get up off your dead ass, my friend, get OVER the stupidity of yourself, let down your defenses and SAY SOMETHING.

I'll hold your freakin' HAND if you want me to.  Just do it.  Just please, get out there, and sing SOMETHING, about working TOGETHER, banding TOGETHER to make the world a better place. We need another "We Are The World." That song was so POWERFUL---and much needed.  We need another one like that.  You can do it.  I believe in you.

So, to those who read this silly tripe of mine, thanks for listening to my frustrations, my anger, my helpless rant, I appreciate each and every one of you readers out there who stumble onto this blog hoping to read something FROM Steve Perry, when it's just my loony one-sided conversation.  I truly think we can and should work together to get through these crises that we are all seeing around us every day.

Tomorrow, it could be you dealing with a crisis.  Or me.

I love ya Stephen, but you have the power to be a voice worth hearing, a voice we all miss, and love, and want to believe in.  Why don't you use that power?  Arnel Pineda has a great voice too, but he doesn't have the STREET CRED that you do.  Josh Groban has an awesome voice also---but he's not at all a spokesperson about anything, except loving his dog.  You have never really been a spokesperson either, but you COULD be. You have the maturity, the intelligence, the wisdom, the foresight, and the ability to see the bigger picture in all things. THAT IS THE TYPE OF VOICE WE ALL NEED RIGHT NOW.

Ok, pep talk is over.  Get busy dammit.  I trust you will.  And I'm talking not only to Steve Perry, but to anyone who reads this damned blog of mine.  Get busy.  As much as I hated the world and everybody in it after 9/11, I still try my best to save it....even when people don't seem to WANT to be saved.

Welcome to my angst, my nemesis in life, and my insanity.

Love, Rebecca