A gentle reminder: That TWO separate tragedies involving children occurred in Minnesota on 4/12/2019….

Important Disclaimer: I’m not a clinically trained medical or mental health professional, nor am I trained in law enforcement or public safety.

If you or someone you know is capable of hurting themselves or others, please seek emergency help right away.

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It goes without saying, I didn’t want to write this blog.

I want to respect that families are suffering and grieving about 2 separate horrific tragedies that happened in Minnesota on Friday, April 12, 2019.

My last 2 previous blogs addressed them.

The reason though I’m writing this again, with really wanting to respect the privacy that these families have asked for, need and deserve, is the court of social media felt one was more newsworthy than another.

To repeat, last Friday, a 24 year old man, threw a 5 year old boy off the 3rd floor at Mall of America in an attempted homicide.

That tragedy made national news outlets.

About 5 hours before that tragedy though, a 36 year old father in the greater Minnesota area, has been suspected of intentional arson to kill him and the 4 children in the  house and he did horrifically kill his 1 year old daughter and 2 year old son, before succumbing to his own injuries, the next day.

The current status of the 9 and 7 year old are that they are recovering.

I spent most of this weekend, following the local news about both families, then following the GoFundMe pages for the families, seeing the comments about the Minneapolis man charged with the attempted homicides and knew I was going to have to write a 3rd blog, especially when I saw on Twitter of how my last blog was so misguidedly being shared on Twitter for the wrong reasons, which I’ll address in a separate blog.

Again, a reminder, I blog as a non violent  medically, mentally and cognitive disabled mother to hopefully remove stigma, as I made horrible mistakes and was so unintentionally neglectful of my children, that still managed to cause emotional hurt to those I love the most and while it irrevocably changed my family’s life, almost 11 years ago, so others don’t make the same mistakes I did and get help sooner than I did.

I try to explain that hearing how bad I was my entire life based upon what I looked liked and weighed, didn’t have just horrible consequences for me, unfortunately as unintended as it was, it had for those I love the most.

To honor these families and many others, I have for years been saying that there is more work to be done in how we deal with those who have issues that could be harmful to themselves and others, whether it’s strangers or their own families.

That it doesn’t matter what everything on the outside looks like, in the era of social media, your houses, your cars, your vacations, your children, what you look like, if inside one is hurting and is capable of harming themselves or another.

That words and actions and lack of them, matter.

They matter A LOT.

That there is hate limit that everyone has when it comes to be targeted, before it turns inward in some manner or it hurts someone else and is now becoming more deadly to innocent others.

That if someone isn’t doing anything that risks one’s life in any way, maybe it isn’t their right or place to throw judgement at them, in any form.

Absolutely, everyone can work on being more careful on their words and actions that could hurt another, it should’ve always been that way, but it’s never mattered as much, in the digital era.

I didn’t digress.

I am trying to concentrate on showing those families the respect they deserve, trying to help in such a miniscule way, of point out, there’s multiple ways to help them with support, as well as in trying to prevent these tragedies from happening in the first place.

The GoFundMe for the Landen, the little boy who was horrifically targeted at Mall of America, has met its goal.

If you want to help the  family for the burial expenses of Landon age 2 and Spencer age 1, who died on Friday, in the fire  that their father set in Big Lake, MN,  you can use the link below.

https://www.gofundme.com/1lugpwmwtc?fbclid=IwAR0XzXgE8GaNQWfZwqfK-Za0IOaGsWyzeHGSQuoGDG1Zn13OJtTwLEzASfQ

But again, a gentle reminder that last Friday in Minnesota, their were TWO separate horrific acts of violence against 5 children under the age of 10.

For 2 completely different reasons and in 2 completely different circumstances.

And that all of us can do our miniscule part to try, going forward, to prevent these tragedies from occurring, by being mindful of not stigmatizing any population of people, and just concentrating on trying to be a part of the solution that helps prevent them from happening and supporting others, when they do tragically occur, and encouraging those in need of help, of getting it, before they do irrevocable harm to themselves or others.

Note: I will NOT publish any comments that could  be hurtful to anyone.

 

An Open Letter to #EmmanuelAranda , the man who likes assaulting people at #MallofAmerica

Important Disclaimers: This blog is trying to provide some kind of controlled and constructive, albeit maybe not the most conventional way for those of us who are heartbroken at what happened at the Mall of America, yesterday.

We can only hope that justice is served in a court of law, we can’t fault everyone or suspect everyone, who looks like the man who was charged with this crime.

One of my most read blogs EVER, was about a local police killer, white and who probably had the most violent and active criminal histories ever, before he became homicidal.

IF, you find it in your heart to forgive someone, so be it, also if you don’t like profanity, please don’t read.

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Yo Emmanuel,

Hopefully you’ll never read this, that you’ll end up fucking rotting in a prison for the rest of your fucking pathetic miserable life.

This ain’t for you, this is for everyone, who’s heartbroken for the 5 year old boy you might have potentially killed and his family, their family friends, our community, as I’m sure for many of   those of us who woke up, checked the news to see if there was any answers about the little boy, but such is in my case, just found that they released your name.

And to my horror, I saw when I checked your criminal history,  which is free, legal, public and online, as it applies to the State of Minnesota, you did something like this before.

You were on probation, for an assault, I’m assuming at the Mall of America, due to the terms of your probation.

I guess we can only hope justice is served better, this time, as it applies to what you did yesterday.

Hopefully, when you have to answer to that family, where there is still so much unknown, which should remain that way for the public, while physicians valiantly try to save this little boy’s life.

The thing is though, you’ll never have the right answer, regardless if you’re capable ever of feeling remorse for what you did and it’s kind of fucking hard to believe that you would, given the fact this wasn’t your first assault and your victim was 5 years old.

I just needed to get this off my chest, while I continue to pray for your victim and his family, I even pray for your family.

I am just NOT  praying for you.

And I’m also praying that for whatever vile reason that made you commit such a heinous act of violence, doesn’t create more violence towards any innocent person, given the degree of instability and savageness, in our society, now.

Note: I make no apologies for what I say. I use words sometimes, strongly, because I can get away with that, to vent, I have no sponsors with this blog, I don’t have a job that I have to worry about being fired from.

If you saw the search terms that people find my blog, it’s one thing to vent when a tragedy happens, it’s another when you see people who find the things I write about for the wrong reasons, which as an activist and blogger, I’m trying to PREVENT these tragedies or in rare cases, in a “vent” blog, give people ways to constructively express their sadness and their anger when tragedies like this occur.

I can’t be clearer, that this crime needs to be prosecuted in a court of law. That the issue with the defendant has to be with what he did, not what he looked like.

Please choose your words thoughtfully if you choose to respond. Thanks.

Thoughts and prayers don’t prevent non gun violence, either….

Important Disclaimers: I’m not a clinically trained medical or mental health professional, nor trained in law enforcement or public safety.

If you or anyone you know, is a danger to yourself or others, please contact emergency services.

I didn’t bother watching much of the news nationally, today.

It was a heartbreaking day, locally.

First that hit the news, was a 24 year old man, pushed or threw (investigation being ongoing, there’s not much information being released, yet)  a 5 year old boy he didn’t know from the 3rd floor to the first floor at Mall of America, where the child is reported to be in critical condition.

In greater Minnesota, a 36 year old father set fire to his house today, killing his 2 youngest children who were toddlers, his other 2 children who were 9 and 7 are in the hospital and the father is in critical condition.

I’m just going to concentrate on today’s events here locally regarding children that were murdered  by family or an attempted murder by a stranger.

We need more initiatives that can help people realize that everyone, regardless of age has a right to a peaceful and violence free life.

These 2 isolated incidents had 5 victims, 2 of them dead, all under the age of 10 years old.

I keep internally debating on whether or not that empathy for others who are different can be taught, that people who have severe mental illness diagnosed or not can have more initiatives in place for education on how important the sanctity of life is and if people can’t see that for themselves, that they do not infringe in any way in everyone’s right to have a healthy peaceful life without all this violence that is now happening on a daily basis, locally, nationally and around the world.

The victims, their families (although truthfully I’m not praying for that father), friends and communities, are in my thoughts and prayers.

With my own disabilities, I can’t do more than bring awareness of the urgent need for more resources and initiatives in place.

And the urgent need for people to check in one another, as well as having more initiatives and if one feels that they are in danger of hurting themselves and others, that they get the help they need for themselves and/or others, so that more of these tragedies can be prevented.

Editorial Note: Blog published while it’s still April 12th, 2019 here in Minnesota.