Don't Be Afraid

 

"Don't be afraid !"

How many times have we said that to others, or to ourselves?  It may be wise to consider the source and reason for one to become fearful.

My grandfather was one of the soldiers on the famous landing of D Day and actually had a general shot and killed beside him.  He could have just dragged the body back and stayed with it, but he didn't. After placing the body on the boat he stormed the beach alone.

I've often wondered had that general shouted encouragement to the soldiers such as the admonition to not be afraid.  But how could these young men not be afraid?

They were facing unimaginable defensive fire power.  The ocean really did look like Kool-aid and body parts floating around as though ice cubes in a cocktail.  He had grown up in a small rural area and had never seen this level of violence.

Then he was a liberator.  He cried when he finally told me the stories when I was in college. It changed him forever.  He became a heavy drinker and he always had a long barrel six shooter hidden in the cushions of his chair.

Fear changes you.  Fear's purpose is to keep you and others safe.  Sometimes this safety is physical but also may be emotional.  Being fearful is natural but it also may foreshadow or point to something you know you have done or are doing that is wrong.  Perhaps following the law.

Our laws are agreements within our society of how we are to behave. It is also points us to acceptable expectations. 

Is it acceptable to you that others on the road are driving well over the speed limit?

Is it acceptable to you that someone operates ANY machinery while drinking alcoholic beverages?

Is it acceptable to you that anyone fires off bullets to just do so realizing that which goes up will absolutely come down?

Is it ok to you that an adult hits or mistreats a child or neglects that child or imprisons that child?

Is it ok with you if someone takes advantage of an elderly person?

Here's the thing...........

If you don't call them down who will?

If you don't have the courage to step up do you have the shame to hide your face?

If you can't be a good example for others who do you expect to do so?

The Bible says to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  I N D E E D !!!!!!

Learn to Love

 

We are admonished to seek after those things that are of good report and lovely.  There are dozens of sources from which I take my positivity and processing of life that just seems to hit me with challenges constantly.  Circle of Atonement is one of those communities.  Having minored in German with a professor who survived Aüswitz this post today really struck a nerve. While, of course, I can't believe that I can ever attain wholely well body in life just by my words, prayers, thoughts and actions this is very intriguing.  enjoy

SICKNESS HAS BECOME IMPOSSIBLE: THE AMAZING STORY OF “WILD BILL CODY”

by Greg Mackie

There’s a well-known Course passage from Lesson 136 (“Sickness is a defense against the truth”) that says some stunning things about what will happen to our bodies if we really let this lesson all the way in:

Perhaps you do not realize that this removes the limits you had placed upon the body by the purposes you gave to it. As these are laid aside, the strength the body has will always be enough to serve all truly useful purposes. The body’s health is fully guaranteed, because it is not limited by time, by weather or fatigue, by food and drink, or any laws you made it serve before. You need do nothing now to make it well, for sickness has become impossible. (W-pI.136.18:1-4)

What this passage says sounds truly unbelievable (but is echoed elsewhere in the Course): If we lay aside the egoic purposes we’ve given the body and devote it only to the “truly useful purposes” of the Holy Spirit, “the body’s health is fully guaranteed.” It will no longer be subject to any of the sufferings and limitations that normally ravage it; it will be free of aging, heat and cold, hunger and thirst, and anything else that might limit it in any way. “You need do nothing now to make it well, for sickness has become impossible.”

This just sounds too extreme to be true, does it not? After all, even great saints like Francis and Mother Teresa and Ramana Maharshi suffered from physical ills, and surely they were at least using their bodies for the truly useful purposes of God much of the time. True, it may well be that these individuals still got sick because they weren’t fully free of egoic purposes, giving the ego a chance to sneak in and try to thwart their tremendous spiritual progress. But if that Course passage is right, surely there must be some examples of people who have demonstrated it in their lives. I’ve often been asked if I know of any such examples, and here, I’d like the share the story of a person who sure looks like one.

This story is from a wonderful book by George Ritchie called Return from Tomorrow. The book is mainly about an amazing near-death experience that happened to Ritchie, but it also relates other events of his life, both before and after the NDE. He served in the American military during World War II, and while his unit was helping to liberate a German concentration camp in 1945 (this was after the NDE), he met an amazing Polish man whom the American troops called “Wild Bill Cody.” This nickname was a mashing together of the names of two Wild West figures, “Wild Bill” Hickok and “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and they called him this because he had a long handlebar mustache similar to theirs, and his real name was “seven unpronounceable syllables in Polish.”

As you’ll see, “Wild Bill” was a truly unforgettable person, a miracle worker par excellence, and by all appearances a powerful example of what the Course passage above is talking about. Here is Ritchie’s account of him:

He was one of the inmates of the concentration camp, but obviously he had not been there long; his posture was erect, his eyes bright, his energy indefatigable. Since he was fluent in English, French, German and Russian, as well as Polish, he became a kind of unofficial camp translator.

We came to him with all sorts of problems; the paperwork alone was staggering in attempting to relocate people whose families, even whole hometowns, might have disappeared. But though Wild Bill worked fifteen and sixteen hours a day, he showed no signs of weariness. While the rest of us were drooping with fatigue, he seemed to gain strength. “We have time for this old fellow,” he would say. “He’s been waiting to see us all day.” His compassion for his fellow prisoners glowed on his face, and it was to this glow that I came when my own spirits were low.

So I was astonished to learn, when Wild Bill’s own papers came before us one day, that he had been in Wuppertal since 1939! For six years he had lived on the same starvation diet, slept in the same airless and disease-ridden barracks as everyone else, but without the least physical or mental deterioration.

Perhaps even more amazing, every group in the camp looked on him as a friend. He was the one to whom quarrels between inmates were brought for arbitration. Only after I had been at Wuppertal a number of weeks did I realize what a rarity this was in a compound where the different nationalities of prisoners hated each other almost as much as they did the Germans.

As for the Germans, feelings against them ran so high that in some of the camps liberated earlier, former prisoners had seized guns, run into the nearest village and simply shot the first Germans they saw. Part of our instructions were to prevent this kind of thing and again Wild Bill was our greatest asset, reasoning with the different groups, counseling forgiveness.

“It’s not easy for some of them to forgive,” I commented to him one day as we sat over mugs of tea in the proceeding center. “So many of them have lost members of their families.”

Wild Bill leaned back on the upright chair and sipped at his drink. “We lived in the Jewish section of Warsaw,” he began slowly, the first words I had heard him speak about himself. “My wife, our two daughters, and our three little boys. When the Germans reached our street they lined everyone against a wall and opened up with machine guns. I begged to be allowed to die with my family, but because I spoke German they put me in a work group.”

He paused, perhaps seeing again his wife and children. “I had to decide right then,” he continued, “whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this. It was an easy decision, really. I was a lawyer. In my practice I had seen too often what hate could do to people’s minds and bodies. Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life, whether it was a few days or many years, loving every person I came in contact with.”

Loving every person…this was the power that had kept a man well in the face of every privation. (George Ritchie, Return from Tomorrow, 129-132)

What a story! Here was a man who endured things most of us can scarcely imagine. He lost his entire family, and then was subjected to the unspeakable hell of a concentration camp for six years. But as another concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl, famously said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” This is what Wild Bill did: In the face of his circumstances, in which he could have so easily succumbed to anger and hatred, he chose instead an attitude of love. He made a firm commitment: “I would spend the rest of my life, whether it was a few days or many years, loving every person I came in contact with.” And we see that commitment lived out in a spectacular way in everything Ritchie saw him do at the camp.

And you may have noticed another element to this story, the element I’m highlighting in this piece: Throughout all of this, in a situation of extreme deprivation where we would normally expect someone to experience horrendous physical effects, Wild Bill’s body remained miraculously healthy. We see references to this sprinkled all through Ritchie’s account:

[It appeared that] he had not been there long; his posture was erect, his eyes bright, his energy indefatigable.

Though Wild Bill worked fifteen and sixteen hours a day, he showed no signs of weariness. While the rest of us were drooping with fatigue, he seemed to gain strength.

For six years he had lived on the same starvation diet, slept in the same airless and disease-ridden barracks as everyone else, but without the least physical or mental deterioration.

Loving every person…this was the power that had kept a man well in the face of every privation.

What can explain this? Ritchie offers his own explanation in the last sentence I’ve quoted above: “Loving every person…this was the power that had kept a man well in the face of every privation.” And this reminds me so much of that passage from Lesson 136. Here was a man who, in his decision to love everyone without exception, had apparently given up all the egoic purposes he had formerly ascribed to his body. He was devoting his body entirely to the “truly useful purposes” of loving and helping his brothers and sisters in need, even the Germans whose compatriots had killed his family. And as a result, it seems that what happened is exactly what that Course passage says: His body was no longer subject to the sufferings and limitations that normally beset us. His body’s health was fully guaranteed. Apparently, for him, sickness and suffering had become impossible.

Now, I think Wild Bill’s story would be astounding and inspiring even if he had experienced physical ills in the camp. The biggest takeaway for me is his shining example of forgiving love, not his miraculously healthy body. That being said, I am heartened when I see one of the Course’s most extreme teachings actually demonstrated in a human life. It increases my confidence in the Course, which I think even long-time students can really use. We may have read passages like this many times, but let’s face it, we still don’t truly believe them deep down, and we need all the concrete evidence we can get.

On top of that, I find myself uplifted by Wild Bill’s manifestation of a healed body as an instrument to extend miracles from his healed mind. Yes, the body isn’t the focus of the Course, but we are promised that our bodies will be healed as we devote them solely to healing our brothers, and to me this is a beautiful thing. How wonderful to think that one day, we all will reach a stage in our development where our minds are so completely devoted to love that our bodies will be a perfect reflection of that: healed instruments that extend healing of mind and body to everyone we encounter. Who wouldn’t want to be a living witnesses that sickness has now become impossible?

Go Or Wait?

 John 10: 30-37

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”  Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Sometimes in life we don't realize that we are in a moment of 'need'.  Perhaps not as dramatic as this story about the good Samaritan, or perhaps much more dramatic than this.  To me it's not about 'taking pity' on the man but rather a study on what one does, how one responds and how one proceeds.

The robbers undoubtedly were stronger than the man and certainly one man couldn't have defended himself  against a mob intent on harming him and taking his resources. It's worth noting that two previous people had passed the man in need.  We are told that the first one was a Priest and the second a Levite.  

Obviously a Priest is someone who holds authority, or as we would say in my church - the keys. Presumably a Priest would be very aware of the needs of others acting to ease suffering.  Charity should be at the forefront of a life centered in ministry.  In order to be a Priest one must have 'proven' himself worthy and to be authorized by others holding the keys to priesthood.  Today, in our modern world, we may be too focused on decorum rather than God's intents.

The second person who walked by was a Levite.  An expert in the law.  There is no doubt that the law of God requires us to treat one another with respect which may include providing for a need absent of a request because all of us should be more than willing to help others within our abilities.  

The man was likely on his way going about his normal affairs when robbers struck with no warning and changed the course of his life.  This event would have never been forgotten by the man as too would the ability of a stranger to see the need and do all within his power to meet the needs that were multifaceted.  The man needed attention to his wounds, he needed help getting to a safe place from which he could re-access and lay a foundation for the navigation toward a life that beforehand was unimaginable in it's unfolding before the intervening event, and he needed resources with which to 'pay' for all of this.

Yet how could he pay for it?  He had been robbed of his money and his clothing.  He was injured very badly and couldn't work to fund moving on with his life.  I imagine that the man also was in a state of mind and being that was in an abyss of shadows that disallowed the light to illuminate what needed to happen next, then after that, then after that and so on.

Would not the entire world be better off with Samaritans who help without being asked, who scan for opportunities to help others, and resolve difficulties as much as is within their power?  The paradox here is that if indeed we lived, loved and gave like the Samaritan there wouldn't be a need for the Samaritan.  A modern Christian song typifies this better than I ever could - "Can you Only Imagine?"

Perhaps the Priest and the Levite later learned of the Samaritan and somehow allowed it to shape their response being "the man in the ditch should have asked for help and the Samaritan overstepped and what gave him the right anyway?"

Before or After ????????

 I was only in my early 30’s.  Success in pretty much everything I tried had left me with the sure knowledge that Heavenly Father was in the details and had my back.  I had always had the idea that I would die young.  It permeated my thoughts that perhaps this was the ‘why’ of my successes.  That my life would be crammed into a few decades rather than many decades.

That day I had done an open house.  I had driven that road my whole adult life.  I always drove in a defensive and observant posture.  My eyes locked with the young girl as I slammed on the brakes and she failed to stop at a stop sign finding out later that she was going 60mph.  I saw the pure panic in her eyes.  I knew in that moment that my life would change.  

When I regained consciousness the door handle of the passenger front door was over the handbrake and the Ford emblem was sitting on the dashboard.  My right foot was still firmly placed and smashing down with all of my strength on the brake.  I felt numb.  I suppose I was in shock.

I’ve never forgotten the sounds of crashing metal, the glass breaking and the dread of something happening that I couldn’t do anything about.  I remember thinking “I’m so glad I’m alone in the car.  My sweet-pea daughter wouldn’t be able to survive this”.

The pain began to set in and was intense.  My neck wouldn’t hardly move.  My head felt like it needed to explode.  My breath was strained and the seatbelt was so very tightly holding me in.  The injuries literally went from the bottom of my foot to the top of my skull.

As the initial recovery period progressed it became obvious that my cognition wasn’t right.  They thought it was the pain, or perhaps the shock of it all.  I had to get far enough with recovery that this could be evaluated.  I had suffered a double brain injury.  One was to the tip of my left inner ear making me so very dizzy.  The other was at the sub-occipital  area on the right side.  i’ll never forget the moment the adhesion had been broken - pain shot through my head like I have never felt before or since.

My first clue that something was bad wrong with my brain is that I couldn’t remember stuff.  I had felt like it was a colossal waste of time to watch reruns but now I couldn’t remember ever seeing shows that apparently I was watching over and over and over.  I also was an avid reader.  Suddenly I could not comprehend or for that matter even recognize the order of letters making a word.

My Mother always told me to get an education and that it would be something nobody could take away - well they had.  I had to relearn to read.  I had to be taught how to outline something I was attempting to read and understand so that maybe I could get the ‘facts’ of it.  I struggled so much BECAUSE I REMEMBERED THE BEFORE.

One day my cognitive rehabilitation doctor finally broke through my disappointment and I realized that I had to leave the past behind, accept what I had left and do my best to craft a future with it.  After three years of cognitive rehabilitation my IQ leveled out at 98 whereas it had been 137 before the wreck.  It was discovered that I could write - for whatever reason.

New learning was impossible so I  focused on writing assignments.  I was able to obtain an Associates in Children’s Writing and then an Associate in Freelance Writing utilizing the ADA.  Then I decided to pursue screenwriting and realized that it was non-fiction that really drew me in.  i tried to write a movie script but I just couldn’t follow the accepted standards of crafting it.  So I wrote a play for my daughter “The Royal Children”.  It was first performed with the Roanoke Island Historical Association professional theater workshop.  

Then we did it in my daughter’s scout troop.   Then an organization (the name of which eludes me) picked it up and it was performed up North.  

I was given the opportunity to help my daughter’s class to craft a book of stories - “Stories of Adventure”.  The children all got a ‘self-published’ copy and they all signed every one of them and yes I do still have my copy.

Because I knew what it was like to have a disability (and I was left with many) I typed up the Lost Colony script in extra large font so that those hard of hearing or had issues with sight could follow along as they attended the show.

The really weird thing is that the wreck was a transformative event in my life.  Because of it I could own the gift of living in the moment and honoring the ‘be here now’ mentality.  I was able to be with my daughter so much more than I could have ever been if I had still been working.  My life was freed from the bondage of expectations.  I learned that my expectations of myself is the most important of all and if along the way I met the expectations of others - GREAT.

It does not take a brain injury to live in the truths that I was gifted in a very challenging way.  It took 10 years of physical therapy, cognitive rehabilitation and surgeries to get to where I am now.  The TBI’s triggered Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus.  I have 5 herniated discs.  Arthritis permeates my body.  my life is dictated by my inabilities and the absolute conviction of knowing that my mission in life is possible with what gifts I have that are magnified now that my journey is no longer about winning another productivity award or earning big bucks but rather making a mark on the world which my Mom also has always told me to do.

Less Than or More Than Enough?

 This has been on my mind a lot lately.  Who decides whether we, our efforts, our goals, our actions, our dreams, our emotions, our psyche and so much more is less than enough or more than enough?

Anyone that has been on the wrong side has heard aplenty “You’re not doing enough”.  “You’re not working enough.”.  “You aren’t dreaming big enough.”.  “You’re are out of line for allowing that to upset you.”. “You’ll never be able to do that”.

I know that you think you have done enough, however you haven’t.  You can do more.  So much more.  I believe in you even if you don’t or can’t believe in yourself.

I know that it seems to you that you are working a lot.  I know that you feel tired and just want to rest.  Being tired is not an excuse for not performing.  You must perform whether you feel well or not.  You must do whether you hurt or not.  You must accomplish regardless of anything else in your life.  I believe in you even if you don’t or can’t believe in yourself.

I know that you think you can ‘be’ whatever it is you desire to ‘be’.  The truth is that you can be, however sometimes being is a function of ability.  Being is also a function of the impression others have of you.  I believe in you even if you don’t or can’t believe in yourself.

I know that when someone judges you it doesn’t feel good.  It feels like they are being unfair and not taking everything into account.  I know that when you have tried to tell me all that you deal with that I’ve cut you off.  I believe in you even if you don’t or can’t believe in yourself.

LOVE means so much more than just a warm fuzzy feeling.  LOVE holds people up when they are having trouble doing it alone.  LOVE takes the higher path and doesn’t romp around the cold, cold valley.  LOVE is about you not about me.  LOVE never ever fails.

Do you LOVE?

 

 Christmas should be all year.  I have traditions that date back, at this point, decades that fertilize the expectation of happy times at Christmas.  Midnight Christmas Eve events.  Downtown Manteo celebration.  House decorations including boats in the downtown harbor.

Yes, of course in the warm & fuzzy feelings but also in the way we live and prepare all year.

A lot of people believe that Christmas is too commercialized.  Probably.  The reason, the why is what is important.  It’s mainly in remembrance of our savior being born in a humble stable and recognizing the start of the new era in human existence.  

When my brother and I were growing up, Christmas was a really big deal.  No matter the circumstances Christmas would be all out as our means allowed.  My Mother played Santa and I would wake up to a living room full of gifts brought by Santa.  I suspect that my Grandmother had a lot to do with the means by which this was accomplished.

One year we were camping at the old Sandpiper’s Trace on the north end of Roanoke Island. (It’s now a big dollar housing area.)  I remember hearing the one and only radio station with someone doing a ‘tracking’ of Santa.  I was so excited, but eventually I fell asleep and when I awoke the next morning Santa had come to our Pop-Up camper.  It was beyond magical.

As my marriage started when I was 23 I began the habit that still pursues to this day.  Living in a suburb of Charlotte finding deals was easy at various stores.  i would buy Christmas Ornaments for .25 cents in January, decorate them in November to give to family and friends for Christmas.

As life progressed so did my bargain meter.  Because I purchased things all year with specific people in mind I could afford to participate at a level that held fond memories from my otherwise challenging childhood.  

When I give gifts the costs are minimal.  Last year I gave the women in my life shawls that had cost $10 each, but I paid .75 cents last summer for each of them.  The original cost was $10.00.  Buying stuff all year allows me to provide some shadow of what I knew as a child. 

Every January I buy Christmas supplies at 90% off - wrapping paper, bows, ribbon and goodies.  The goodies must be in date for at least 18 months or I won’t buy them - unless it’s very special and I’m really getting it for a birthday that will happen sooner than Christmas.  I pay .25 cents for 12 pack candy canes which I use to decorate my gifts.  It’s nothing for me to find a full size roll of wrapping paper for .50 cents or a bag of bows for .25 cents.

So this is a lifelong habit.  When I see ‘Sushi’ jelly candy I think of my daughter’s birthday so I pay the .75 cents and put it in the box for her birthday.  When I find gourmet jelly in unusual flavors for less than $2 I get them for my Mom - I get her jellies every year.  When white, cotton washcloths are on clearance at Walmart I buy them because Mom uses them and needs new ones throughout the year. 

As I’m finding these deals it’s not really about the monetary value it’s that I’m thinking about a specific person.  I don’t go looking I just know where to look at the retail stores I go to routinely.  Higher priced items, like a new ‘laptop’ for 2 year olds for my granddaughter’s main Christmas, I watch Amazon and get it for 75% off.

I also try to make something every year for those very special people in my life.  It might be an ornament, a dream catcher, a seashell angel, a special photo that is especially nice, etc…..  So all year I find the supplies for this.  Mini grapevine wreaths $1 a dozen when will become dreamcatcher ornaments.

Anyone receiving gifts from me can be sure of a few things:

• You were thought of at some point in the year
• I’m not ‘overspending’ and in fact give you nice things that I have been prepared to buy at huge discounts
• My financial sacrifice for this is minimal because of the way I do things
• Goodies like special hot chocolate and large candy canes have been purchased at 90% off and in date well into the following year that you receive them.
• Perhaps even more important than it all is that I’m recognizing all year that the birth of  Jesus provided our path to returning to our Heavenly Father through salvation from his sacrifice, and I want you to have some part of that feeling too.

See the good

Be the good

Embrace the good

Deny the bad

Turn away from harm

Separate from the challenges that you can

………… and know you are loved and thought of by me all year long.

A Whole Lot of Right Saved Lives

 It’s happened again.  More precious children slaughtered.  It could have been so much worse, and it likely could have been prevented with strong legislation typically termed “Red Flag Law”.  But instead of focusing on that, let’s analyze all that was done right - actually TEXTBOOK right.

Covenant School in Nashville has:

* 42 faculty and administrative employees

* approx 200 students

* _____ unknown number of custodial and kitchen employees.  (I would estimate 12)

10:11am     Shooter enters the school by shooting out the glass

2”                School goes into emergency evacuation procedures saving HUNDREDS of lives, the danger alert system is set off with flashing lights and sirens all over the building and 911 call made.

10:13am    Call received by 911.

12”            approx 260 people evacuated out of the building.   (197 students and about 60 adult faculty, staff and administrators  rushed to safety using set protocols.  Adults were stationed near every other entrances so as to facilitate getting police in the building and aware of what was ‘known’.)

*  What was known in these 12” is that two students were unaccounted for (it ended up being 3), and that the vast majority of people had been removed to safety.

10:25am    Police descend on the campus.  A unit gained entry immediately going through TEXTBOOK procedures to find the shooter.

10:26am    Two Officers find the shooter who was firing on police in the parking lot, turned around and fired on them.  She was shot 4 times and went down, but was still holding a firearm. 

10:27am    Orders were given to push her firearms away - she didn’t - she was shot 4 more times - she died.

Whether we like it or not we are in a ‘time passing’ reality.  To have police surround the school and an entire unit gain entry in less than 12” is admirable.  The very fact that the shooter was dead in less than 2” from that point is astounding and absolutely worth gratitude.  Of course it would have been better to have had an armed guard with the authority and ability to “shoot to kill” such an assailant.  Maybe going forward schools will understand that and hire such folks, and maybe going forward municipal policing will assign an armed officer to be on campus at every school private or public that can take decisive and fatal action - which presumably would have happened when the 28 year old woman shot out the locked doors.

There is absolutely no good reason for a mental ill person to be able to purchase 7 weapons and absolutely no good reason for ANYONE at ANYTIME in ANY WAY to purchase assault style weapons. I haven’t done an in-depth ‘hours long’ research but here is what 30” uncovered:

She had three high capacity / high velocity firearms with her including 

1.    Kel Tec Sub 2000 with an extended magazine giving her 50 rounds

2.    Grunt III (AR15 style) with an extended magazine giving her about 30 rounds

3.    M & P 9mm with an 8 round clip and possible a 9th round already preloaded

Folks that is 88 rounds of high velocity fire power in the hands of a 28 year old mentally ill person with a vendetta we really don’t understand yet.  I suspect that all rounds were full metal jacket and possibly hollow point so as to inflict the greatest harm possible with each hit.

She was wearing an assault vest presumably with additional loaded magazines.

It is miraculous that a whole lot more people did not lose their lives, but that is due primarily to EXCELLENT emergency protocols and them being carried out quickly.

My hope is that the Federal government will act and put a stop to the ease of which firearms are purchased stopping the sale with no paperwork or background check at gun shows and a sweeping way to do better with gun sale protocols.  It’s not you or me - I had purchase permits for my gun.  I went through the 30 day wait while the Sheriff did a background check.

This has to stop.  EVERY school needs an armed guard ready and willing to shoot and kill an assailant period !  Obviously immediate deadly action when someone shoots their way through locked glass doors.  EVERY state must enact RED FLAG LAWS immediately.

I don’t have the answers, but I do know what was done right.  I happen to be a certified FEMA Active Shooter Educator.  I completed my training at the request of COA on June 17, 2015.  I know because while I was in training when those precious church folk in Charleston, SC were slaughtered.  I learned this after the training and getting home that night.

EVERY educator, EVERY school employee college, grade school, private and public should be required to do this training and then demand the safety protocols from their institutions.  I did, and I was the focus of many jokes because I did it.  But ALL of my students knew the safety plan in every class whether a one day class or a 12 week class.  And I was prepared.  I had my own window screen papers to tape up, I insisted that my door be locked BEFORE class so that nobody could enter and I would have to let them in one student at a time checking their ID and making sure they were on the roster.

The three firearms recovered at the school cumulatively cost around $2,500.  Reports say that she owned an additional 4.

I got my information from the Nashville Metropolitan Police website, www.thecovenant school.com (before it was taken down), various firearm blogs and retailers proudly selling these assault weapons, Reuters, PBS and manufacturing companies that made these high capacity killing tools. 

Until our hearts change and our laws become more protective of the innocent we will see escalation not cessation.  It’s sad really.