what, no thoughts and prayers today?

 Aku has moved to Florida. he is at the SeaWorld center with another walrus his age.  Ginger and he will grow up together.  i hope they treat him well.  i know SeaWorld has taken some heat for their cares of late so hopefully that means they have improved the lives of the animals in their care.  our sweet boy is away from Alaska. he will be happy to have a friend to play with that is for sure. 

 yesterday, a guy who claims to have followed IS rammed into bikers/walkers on a path in New York. it's the first attack such as this in NY since 2001 when the Towers were hit.  New Yorkers seemed to return to normal by celebrating Halloween despite this terrible event.  a sort of F you attitude.  it's the right one to take i think. 

 i believe the last i heard 9 souls were lost and another 15 injured.  many of those lost were sadly tourists from other nations. 

 unlike the event in Las Vegas that killed over 50 and injured over 500 there have not been the calls of thoughts and prayers that seem to usually accompany these events.  the guy was a self proclaimed home grown terrorist so instead of prayers calls to action on the right seem to be more the way.  where as those who believed the Las Vegas shooting merited a discussion on gun control, the talk today is for control of all immigrants.  closing of borders, stronger vetting.  the left was said to be disrespecting those who were killed or injured by even daring to discuss guns rights, it's not the time, it's irreverent to speak of such things.  now the dead are quickly forgotten in the quest to have stronger vetting and to restrict immigration more.

 by the way, nothing has changed since Las Vegas.  well, yes one thing did change, those bump stocks that allowed that horrid man to kill so many so quickly...have sold out many times over.  that is the end result of any white crazy guy who shoots up our citizens.  more guns sold.  of course, I'm sure there will be a similar response to this...buy more guns.

 sad for the victims of this yet again.  we should do what we can to prevent such events however we can.  just as we should do what we can to prevent mass shootings.  we will never stop all of these.  we do live in a world where these sort of things will happen.  making it more difficult for cars to access areas where pedestrians are could help.  this guy wasn't from one of the already numerous nations iitoo has chosen as the nations to ban any immigrants.  you can't ban the whole world.  that just isn't how it works.  this guy has been here since 2010. sounds like he was hoping for suicide by officer.  he wrote a note and left it in the truck and came armed with non-lethal guns? 

 i suspect it's an embarrassment to him that he survived this.  he was shot in the gut.  better if he'd been shot by a female, that is what i have heard.  the main terrorists organizations want us to become paranoid, want us to close our doors and create more hate and anger.  many are falling right into this trap.  making a miserable life even more miserable for the many good people who wish to just live a normal life, to escape the hell of these battled nations. it's a cycle...not sure how we can break these cycles, but hate filled twitter rants probably not a good start.

 he will get a fair trial in New York and will be found guilty no doubt...that is how it works in the United States and that is what they should see the world over.  we are civilized.  we are fair. we aren't hate filled and reactionary.  not sure how long we can keep the paranoids at bay though.  those who want to ship him to gitmo  and ban all who are not like them.  who they see as different and different is uncomfortable and scary. 

 there was a thing on Bergdahl.  he left his post in Afghanistan, he was captured and subsequently tortured by the Taliban.  he was later exchanged for prisoners we held at gitmo i believe.  he is here awaiting trail for crimes against our nation. 

 i know one dogs life was lost.  6 other lives were lost over the next months. the actual search had been called off at the time the 6 lives were lost, so it is pretty questionable if they were directly lost because of Bergdahl, but don't tell that to the haters.  our nation has a history of not leaving soldiers behind...even crappy ones. we do what we can to bring them home...then they are afforded the same fair trial they, like all US Citizens deserve. 

 i have never served.  i do not agree with what this man did, but i can have empathy that there is much in a war zone that can make people do things they wouldn't normally do.  it's tough for me to judge this soldier.  i can have compassion and not agree.  our nation seems to have lost this, at least a large percentage of our citizens.  there are calls for firing squads, death by all sorts of horrific means before a fair trial.  our nation is spitting blood everywhere i turn.  these folks seem to be losing sight of the things our founding fathers built our nation on.  our nation doesn't leave soldiers behind, even bad ones and our nation believes in fair trials before punishment is served up. 

 if we can't fight for these things then we may as well just accept ourselves as a lawless state , like those nations we are trying to ban people from. we must rise above. we must remain calm and rational.  we must stop and view things from multiple vantage points and come up with solutions that work, not that just fulfill our anger at the moment.  our nation has a history of being inventive and problem solvers.  we could return to this if we would repair our education system and focus more on our people, all our people. 

 if i post a comment i am shredded by haters.  i can take it.  it's pretty disgusting though.  these are fellow Citizens who are saying these things.  they don't look for the truth but instead take what is fed them and begin screaming and reacting.  they direct this hatred at someone, such as myself, who simply writes a rational comment,  attempts to make a rational thought or start a rational discussion. they call me names like snowflake.  i still think this is funny.  i am apparently a terrible person because i am kind.  that is the new America.  kindness and compassion are seen as weakness.  we are seen as traitors.  see things our way or we will hate you. it's all pretty twisted right now.

 hate and anger make people weak and that means that our nation becomes weaker each day because of the hate and anger that we are allowing to feed and grow. 

 our current potus feeds into the hate and anger. he lives that fear and puts that fear back out there. we should stand tall against terrorists.  not cower as the right seems to want us to do.  we need to be united in our stance that these acts will not define us.  that we will not waver in our values of kindness and compassion and strength of character. we will not become them...

 despite horrible events such as this we all generally continue to live normal free lives.  we pursue happiness.  yes we must be aware and alert, but events are planned and carried out.  we are free.  we remain free.  we practice our religions or lack of religion freely, we come and go to work freely, we gather with friends freely, we exercise freely.

 the paranoid folks would have you believe you are not free or that your freedoms are going to be suddenly lost.  they aren't.  we have the greatest military out there.  we must put some faith in them.  currently there is little faith in our government, but i try to believe that the truth will come out and i try to have faith in the systems.  we may need to do some tweaking and our nation is still young and adapting to a changing world...but we will adapt. 

 will be beat terrorists. eventually yes, but there will always be another threat on the horizon.  how we handle each of these threats is how we are defined. 

 we must choose to be brave instead of weak, we must choose to be strong and steadfast instead of angry. 

 we must continue to be the melting pot we were built on.  it is our strength.  the best of people coming to the greatest of nations to work hard and make the entire earth better.  sometimes we will bring in a bad seed, or we will grow a bad seed.  we must be aware and vigilant to seek those out and prevent them from destroying what we have. 

 by and large it isn't the worst that make their way here, it is the best...it could be if we are open to this.  there are brilliant people born across the earth each day.  we should make our nation welcoming to the best of the best.  there is so much potential on our earth.  so much good that could be done if we are only open minded enough. if we can keep fear and anger at bay.

 i often wonder as i see children across the globe killed in wars, famines, as refugees...could that child have cured cancer if they had lived and been allowed to thrive.  could that child have been the one who advanced space exploration, could that child have made medical advances or technological advances or could that child have been an amazing artist that brought our hearts peace and joy...? 

 i hear the scream each life matters...but it doesn't just matter at birth, it matters all the way through. 

 we lost some lives yesterday. i have no idea what sort of people they were, or in what area they excelled, but each loss is devastating to us all. 

 this is our planet.  we are all in it together. i know there are borders, but this earth is one nation.  we must find ways to work together, to build together and to live together.  it's not us vs them.  it is just us. 

 so thoughts and prayers, yes, to those who are trying to heal and those who will never heal.  action yes, to attempt to understand and to attempt to prevent these sorts of events from happening again.  not just for this event but for all the events...for the events that happen across the earth that then make their way to us in the form of hate and anger. closing borders doesn't stop hate from building and really probably only makes them hate us more for having what we have and not trying to help them find a better way.

 was one of those who died yesterday someone who was going to help repair our damaged earth? bring peace?  were they just like you and I. trying to pursue a life of peace and happiness. a life that is productive?  one that gives a little more than it takes from this world? 

 these are beach shots.  i better get the dogs out for a little stretch. i start back to work tonight.

 the big mountain,Denali. 

 it was clear for a bit but it's foggy again.

 not too many trick or treaters last night, i did make a pretty good dent in the Nestle bars.  everyone seemed to be having fun out there.  it was a week night.  perhaps folks didn't stay out as late.  trick or treating just isn't as common as it used to be.  still fun though.  the pups had fun. 

 i chilled and watched the Dodger game. they won.  now a game 7 tonight. I'll be at work.  low census doesn't happen anymore. 

 had a couple  bills to pay.  be safe, be kind

thankful for:  A.  being a snowflake....better to fight for good than fear evil  B.  the health to take these pups out for walks all the time.  C.  the joy in the simple things in life.  peace to all