April 17, 2007
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Filled.
When my heart is filled with hate I find it hard to fill it with love.
When my heart is filled with sadness I find it hard to fill it with joy.
When my heart is filled with frustration I find it hard to fill it with peace.
It's okay to feel hate, sadness and frustration over the Virginia Tech shootings. Lord knows that I did. (And for some twisted reason I felt it more when I found out that the murderer was an Asian guy.) But the world moves on with or without us, my friends. The world is filled with hate, sadness, frustration, love, joy and peace with or without us. I cannot change the past nor can I prevent the future, but I can do my best to fill the world with more love, joy and peace than hate, sadness and frustration...because I have to believe in something. And if that will be my downfall, then I will fall clutching hope instead of despair.
God bless, everyone. Take hold of those you hold dear a little tighter tonight.
Comments (41)
I'm glad he's dead. I just hope he suffered before he died.
I however am NOT glad that he is dead. I think that a person like that must have had some kind of suffering going on and needed help of someone and when noone came thats what it came to. IT is sad that innocent bystanders had to suffer for his suffering though.
its a tragic ending for everyone...my prayers for everyone at VA tech and most of all the victim's family.
what annoys me more is the propaganda that you KNOW is going to pop up against immigration, against minorities, and asian kids in particular. I can forsee asian boys being jumped on the street and someone beating the shit out of them " in the name of justice".
Frank, I love this, "I cannot change the past nor can I prevent the future, but I can do my best to fill the world with more love, joy and peace than hate, sadness and frustration...because I have to believe in something. And if that will be my downfall, then I will fall clutching hope instead of despair." I think I may print it and have it as my mantra.
And so has been laid on us the priviledge and responsibility of free will. That our every action reverberates throughout all eternity, that all decisions are moral ones, that no one lives of his own but how we spend our time here on earth touches the spheres of a hundred million others. God have mercy on us, that when one uses his free will to destroy, we may use ours to heal and restore. Always, always.
tragic day. I totally wasn't expecting it to be an asian guy
I think I hold a lot more disdain for the media than for the shooter himself. It's sad, yes, but I'm more outraged at the absolute idiocy of society, narrowly screaming "No more guns!" and other such absurdities.
My condolences to the victim's families, but my rage is reserved for those who are alive and simply reacting without thinking first.
Great entry. It is indeed tragic, but we must all continue to hang onto hope.
frank, i am glad you have faith enough to share...
find a spot in your heart for hope...that's all it needs to grow....even if it's a teeny tiny spot...
I think that's all we can do...go out holding onto hope instead of despair. This whole world sucks so bad right now that if all we do is focus on the bad stuff we'd go crazy!! That's why we need folks like you
Thanks, Franksabunch.
thanks frankie...are u in manhattan?
words can not express...
I can't even imagine the level of pain they all must be in right now, but I hope the families and the community of VA Tech will find a way to cope, to heal, and eventually to move on one day.
As a side note, I'm angry that we live in a society that facilitates those who have no respect for lives, that we make it that much easier to end life in the blink of an eye. Perhaps we are more to blame than we want to believe, and we need to stop and examine why we allow these shootings to continue. To say that "guns don't kill, people do" is analogous to saying that bullets don't kill, guns do--it makes no sense. All three contribute to the killing, but most significantly, there is the human will that pulls the trigger. Not all "wills" are evil, but how exactly do we pick and choose the noble "wills" from the evil? Isn't it better that we make it as difficult as possible to commit this type of atrocity? I think it's time to re-examine the 2nd amendment and understand once and for all that it is a right to bear arms only in the context to form a militia if one is lacking, and we obviously have no dearth there.
what you said.. man..
you are an amazing man.
what a tragedy.. and to what to the second commenter said.. there is absolutely no excuse to take another person's life.
amen. It made me think of part of this sond:
...and if I stand, let me stand on the promise that You will pull me through... and if I fall, let me fall on the grace that first brought me to You... -Rich Mullins, If I Stand
Thanks, I'll go down believing, before I go down in tears.
Its sad that people have to exploit the shooter's race. Does it really matter what race he is? Didnt he just kill 32 people? I dont know. But thanks for posting this. :]
You have a great outlook and faith, and I wish more people felt the same as you do. It is truly tragic and I hope that people will find comfort in all this somehow.
I have to believe that atleast a little bit of good will stem from this...whether it be improvement in security or a better way to reach to those who suffer from so much anger.
RYC: Thanks for dropping by. It's been a while since I've been here, too. My grandpa is a little unstable but he's hanging on. His fight to stay in this world tells me that life is really quite precious.
what a nutjob. it's rumored that his sister goes to princeton, his mom ranaway, and his dad committed suicide.
There are couple options for us right now:
1. The Hell with the Second Amendment, or
2. Make psychological evaluations and extensive background checks mandatory for anyone, in every State, who wishes to possess firearms, or
3. Do nothing, wait a couple days/months/years, and let tragedy like this happen again.
Yes, we all know that things like this WILL happen again if we the People do not stand up against our out-of-control gun culture. Everyone should take some responsibility for what happened yesterday, especially if we choose to remain idle from now on.
Call your Congressmen/women first thing tomorrow morning and ask them to choose the second option. Psychos shall not have the right to bear arms. This is not a difficult concept to grasp.
true
it's so sad, and what's sadder, is that it takes tragedies like this to make us love those close to us more and get us to make a difference in the laws in the country.
it makes me tired that people can hate so much to not only take their own lives, but also the lives of the innocent. i wonder when we will stop.
yeah this is one of those times where you just pray. i'm praying for the family of the shooter as well.
Why is everyone so obsessed with the shooters ethnicity?
great words
Hate that happened :-/
very nice, frank...
I think everyone is obsessed with him being Asian because if you are Asian, you'll notice that not many Asians get head line news. You always hope and pray that that person will be there cause he/she discovered a cure for cancer. Therefore a success for one Asian, opens up doors for everyone else that has experienced racism in their lives.
*However*, when one Asian dude is known as the shooter of the largest campus attack in the history of the United States, Asian people see it as a set back for us all. We all immigrated from somewhere, and we've all heard how racist immigration policies have affected friends and family. We don't want that fear of Asians to ever come back and ripple into government policy and popular thought ever again.
It also has to do with culture. The things each Asian person does, is not only for yourself, it's for your family, it's for your family honour. The fact that this guy totally just turned his back on all of it is shocking and totally abnormal.
As far as i'm concerned, this one dude certainly does not represent me. I just hope everyone else realizes he doesn't represent the Asian people of the world.
Aww. I think that he must have had a lot of hatred in his heart to do something like that, but I digress...
I want to comment, more so, on the part about believing. I feel the same way; however, don't you ever just get really frustrated from giving so much of yourself and doing the "right" thing...to just wind up empty-handed? Um...okay, am I talking about you or me? In any case, keep believing. =)
Prayers for all.
it was a sad day. and you know, i know what you mean about finding out it's an asian guy... at the same time though, dark and twisted people could be anybody right? that they keep saying it was a south korean born dude doesn't really make a difference, and emphasizing that only creates more hatred amongst people when there doesn't need to be any.
It doesn't matter that he was Asian, what matters is that he was disturbed, and it was identified years ago, and nothing was done about it. Mass murderers are all nationalities...Idi Amin, Timothy McVeigh, and now Cho...
It's all very tough - my prayers has been going to them all since ...
My blog is very similar to what you wrote above. I know that you have lost some dear ppl in your life---your beloved father and grandmother, for instance.. So, you personally are aware of how quickly someone can leave our lives (tho we will see them once again when we die....Not only do I believe this, but I'm counting on it!!!)
Here is my blog on the day of the VT murders....
TOMORROW MAY BE TOO LATE!!!!
The murders at Virginia Tech, Columbine, the murders of 5 innocent Amish girls, Kent State, the death of my 19 y/o niece and 40 y/o brother-in-law and 30 y/o best friend and so many other tragedies remind me of this:
Have you ever thought of this??
All of us are here together on this green ball. We are all human beings. We love, we laugh, we cry, we share, we reach out or pull back, we touch others... We interact.
Human beings, just like all other animals, need each other. We depend on each other. OK, some of you may be really macho and don't think you need anyone, but I know that you DO need other people in your lives.. Sometimes the most macho amongst us need people the most, but aren't even aware of it or don't care to admit it. Where would we be without each other?? Where would we be??
Sometimes we get so busy with our daily lives--our work, our errands, our appointments that we don't take the time to be there for each other. Our busy-ness has eliminated what we need most--human touch and interaction.
Please go and tell someone today how very important they are in your life. Or, apologize to someone whom you have hurt. Or, give support to someone who is crying or upset. Tomorrow may be too late.
TOMORROW MAY BE TOO LATE!!!
Hope you have a meaning-filled week, Dr Franksabunch....
christy, RN
woot
i was on a cruise when this happened... so sad...
hey frank, i havent visited your page in awhile. hope all's well!
welcome back
You are going to write a poem? Aww...how romantic. I am writing one as well. =)
ryc: Yep, Tyson is a friend of mine. He's a blast to go out with because everybody recognizes him from TV. He's so unassuming and not into the Hollywood scene, but he knew my friends would appreciate it, and he got us all in. He's a stand up guy.
Yep, I guess you're right about Far East Movement. I guess I just assumed a couple of them I was talking to were Korean. They just came back from Brazil, and since I go there a lot, we were talking about that. Super nice guys.
Thanks for the photo comment here too.
Your post is quite eloquent. Thanks for remembering them.
And lastly, every time I come to your site I have to play that video. That little boy is the light of the world. I could watch it over and over. Such joy
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