There have been three mass murder incidents in the past two days. One was in Nebraska at a drive-in restaurant. A guy who tried to buy food for his friend got caught using a stolen app. He came back with a gun, killed two employees at the restaurant, and wounded two more. There was also a shooting at a mall in Wisconsin; there were no fatalities, but a bunch of people were injured. And the worst one of all was at the Great Baptist Church in San Jose, California. The church was being used as a shelter for homeless people. All of a sudden, a man with a knife came in and attacked, stabbing two people to death and wounding many others. This all goes to show that mass shootings and stabbings are picking up again. To the people who may be thinking about doing these types of things, please do not use a knife or a gun to solve your problems! No matter how bad they are, don’t do it. You’ll be throwing your life away and inflicting immeasurable grief on others. It’s not worth it. Try to get help to solve your problems. You can be a credit to society instead of a debit. You can help people instead of hurting them. You’re not helping people when you shoot or stab their loved ones. You cannot begin to imagine what you would be doing to those families if you commit this type of crime. You would be tearing their lives apart and condemning yourself to death or life in prison. You can learn to solve your problems without a gun or a knife. When you learn how to emotionally handle the world, you will be able to do far better things. Resorting to a weapon is not power. It is destruction, annihilation. It doesn’t have to happen. There are people out there who can teach you the skills you need to be successful in life. Just because you feel hatred doesn’t mean you have to inflict it onto other people. They want to live good lives. They want to enjoy their marriages, their families, their children. And if you shoot or stab their loved ones, they won’t be able to do that. They’ll lose everything. So please don’t do it. Don’t use a gun or a knife. You can learn how to handle the world. You can deal with people by being caring, compassionate, and loving. There are even social classes you can go to that will teach you skills on how to get along with people. There is help out there. There is hope out there. You may not know what it’s like to have grown up in a good family; your parents may not have taught you how to handle the world or how to have good emotional and social skills, but there is nothing to be gained by destroying the lives of others just because you didn’t get the training you needed. Don’t use murder as a means for revenge. Please get help. Talk to somebody about how you feel. Find a way to contribute to society. We all have a gift to do something, it’s just a matter of finding out what it is. For me, it’s public speaking and doing advocacy work. I don’t know what it is for you, but I know you can do something good, too.
We all need to care for one another. If somebody is going downhill, try to intervene. Help them and try to convince them not to do anything destructive. Tell them there are better ways of solving problems than destroying people’s lives. There has been too much of this stuff already. Plus, there’s so much going on right now: COVID-19, the election, Trump. The world doesn’t need any more grief. I speak these words out of love, compassion, and caring - out of a deep desire to not see more people die out of mass murder streaks. Please believe me when I say this - I know it’s possible to have a better life than using a gun or knife to get revenge. Please don’t do it. There are alternatives available. Please take them. And to any therapists out there, if someone comes to you with this kind of a problem, don’t turn them away; try and find a way to help them. Show them how to acquire the emotional skills they need to live a good life. Show them kindness and compassion. People will respond to you if you do that. Finally, I hope this Thanksgiving holiday doesn’t see any more crimes or violent mass murders. We need to treat each other with kindness and if we ever think about doing something bad, we need to consider the harm we’d be inflicting on others. Hopefully this will talk us out of doing it and we can begin to realize that violence and hate are not the answer and that we should be promoting love instead.