what will you sacrifice?

I know it doesn't matter. I know I've nothing new to say. I know my words hold no special power by virtue of celebrity, or connections to the named previous tragedies (no more than any American). I know it's worse in a war zone. I know someone's said it louder and better and clearer and certainly many, many times before.
But I don't care. Because I'm angry.
and frankly
I'd rather not be next.
see the next
to lose a child
a boss
a friend
a mother
neighbor
or stranger who looks just like ( I swear) my sister's boyfriend's daughter.
I'm tired of watching it get closer
and closer
to home.
So here is what I'm willing to sacrifice
in the pursuit of
#nomoreshootings

1. My stock belief that a men's rights activist is almost certain to be profoundly misguided
           tell me sir, what you bring to the table.

2. My anger over the scapegoating of the mentally ill, which I'm certain is "othering" at it's core, but
           let's put it on the table, for the sake of even one less death.

3. My certainty that the NRA is trading lives for profit in the currency of fear.
            certainly there is room for you to prove me wrong.

4. My dismissal of anyone who has ever posted a meme about a gun not managing to run off and shoot someone on it's own.
             sure. point made. But now let's take it to the next level. let's please conversate

5. My inaction. I get it. preaching at facebook, crying to my husband, holding my children closer. all have done precisely nothing to stop the onward march of this perfectly preventable pandemic of violence and complacency.

Let's please be the next voice calling to #makeitstop

after all...

I'd rather not see the next one, be the next one, fuel the next one, resign myself to the next one.

and if I must

I'd rather die trying, even failing, than simply waiting

for the next one

#nonextone