i don't understand

i don't understand a lot of things. i don't understand why i'm content to not yet understand some things, but discontent to not understand others.

this prompt was issued before the latest school massacre.

i don't understand why so many this year already, so many the year before, and the year before, since ??, since columbine, since forever.

and we do nothing but yell at each other across the divide.

i told my son today i'd like to think there are rational people who understand we need to quit yelling at each other and find some common ground and sit down at the table together to find some solutions both sides can live with but that the media doesn't talk about it because they get more clicks from the yelling (i don't hate the media. i know there are good people working hard to sort fact from fiction and get to and reveal the truth. but greed and profit seem to rule the corporate world.)

i don't understand why we are tearing apart families and yanking providers and caregivers right out of their homes and why we can't keep our promises to children who've lived entire productive lives here in our country as march 6 (or was it 5) looms near and we are too busy yelling at each other or feeling superior and self-righteous or changing our minds to save them.

i don't really understand yelling at each other any way.

why it's not accepted that perhaps we can stand up for one thing without being hateful to what is perceived as its opposite.

why it's not accepted that we can love people--not just tolerate, but truly love--while not agreeing with them or experiencing the world in the same way they do.

i don't understand unkindness.

i don't understand meanness.

i don't understand willfully hurting someone.

or brutally killing them.