After deep thought and reflection, a lot of memories surfaced. They all had one common denominator, they were all large family gatherings. Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents, cousins, brothers/sisters and friends of the family. All just having the best time, cookouts, bonfires, drinks, us kids playing games, and laughter. It dawned on me that this is exactly what is being attacked. Families are fractured, brother against brother, gatherings are deemed irresponsible and deadly. My fondest memories as a child are now demonized and considered terrorist activities now.
An entire generation is being deprived of family, going to a classmates birthday sleepover, and for fuck sakes knowing what your teachers face looks like. Being just 40 years old and knowing my life experience might as well be the experience of someone in the 1800s to a current elementary student. This is the saddest thing to me.
Thoughtful post. It’s very hard on some levels to be aware of the horrors that have always been lurking in the shadows, horrors that have been revealed to us by amazing, strong, honorable individuals who have engaged in the most profound, important and critical battle for the literal soul of humanity. Instead of being depressed by this, see if you can change your perspective to that of looking forward to the impending victory and the promise of a future that will be far better than it’s been in any of our lifetimes. Let this knowledge be your inner strength.
The beautiful human connections that you have and that all of us have are exactly why the dark side will never prevail. Throughout history even people born into a horrid, soul-crushing system have risen up and defeated these oppressors. As far as the children and young people missing out on important aspects of life - yes, they have been negatively affected, but kids are extremely resilient and young adults will also bounce back.
Please consider also the most horrifically-abused victims of this evil - those human trafficking victims both children and adults, many who have probably never known the joys and love you speak of. We owe it to them and to all generations to follow us to stand strong and not lose heart.
Look at the glass half full, j_t, and look to a promising future. Your thoughtful comments show exactly why you’re here, why you may have been chosen to be a witness to the evil - because you know what’s important in life. It’s the human connection, the love, the laughter, the shared moments.
This is hard - really hard - knowing what we do and seeing the injustices and worse inflicted on our fellow man by beasts without souls. That said, I would never want to be ignorant like the sheep all around us. The young people you speak of who are having years of their lives stolen from them are going to enjoy a lifetime of an amazing world filled with opportunities that you and the rest of us have been barred from experiencing.
It’s not going to be easy even if the truth were to reach the masses tomorrow and all the sheep were to understand by year end, all the DS imprisoned, many tried and executed. We have mountains of work in front of us for the next ten-to-twenty years in the best of cases. Imho it will be well worth going through this storm and the aftermath of cleaning up.
(Sorry this is so long. Certain subjects resonate with me and I can be verbose on subjects I’ve thought about extensively. u/CaptainBobbles said most everything in my comment in two succinct, powerful sentences. Lol).