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Feb/Mar 2018
2 Florida Mourns
Opening Lent, Pope urges people to slow down, rediscover power of silence Pope Francis, leading Catholics into the season of Lent, urged people on Wednesday to slow down amid the noise, haste and desire for instant gratification in a high-tech world to rediscover the power of silence. On Ash Wednesday devout Christians in churches around the world have ashes rubbed onto their heads in a ritual reminding them of their mortality as a priest recites the biblically inspired phrase, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” On Wednesday, a Cardinal rubbed ashes on the Pope’s forehead and then Francis did the same to other members of the congregation at a Mass in the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill. “Pause a little, leave behind the unrest and commotion that fill the soul with bitter feelings which never get us anywhere,” he said in his homily. ”Pause from this compulsion to a fastpaced life that scatters, divides and ultimately destroys time with family, with friends, with children, with grandparents, and time as a gift...time with God,” he said.
The shooting at the school in Florida struck close to home. At first, I didn't even know where in South Florida Parkland was. We don't hear much about Parkland, Florida; it's a small, quiet municipality bordered by the Everglades, Coral Springs, Boca Raton and West Palm. Earlier this month, Parkland was named in a national survey as one of the safest cities in the country, and last year another study ranked it as the safest city in Florida. The school system has received the highest grade of “A” for seven years running from the state Department of Education. It's only public high school is Stoneman Douglas High School. Now this quiet enclave is known for a mass shooting.
Cruz as suffering from mental illness and being "emotionally handicapped," and being on behavioral medication. One notes, "He has mentioned in the past that he would like to purchase a firearm." Broward County Sheriff's deputies were called to the Parkland, Florida, home four days after Cruz's 18th birthday. He had lashed out at his mother over a disagreement about the paperwork he needed to get a Florida State identification card. Lynda Cruz was worried, she told police. Back when he was too young to legally buy a rifle, her son had mentioned he wanted to buy a gun. Now he was "cutting his arms ... to get attention," she told them, according to one police report dated September 28, 2016.
Arguments abound about whether we should blame mental illness or whether we should be talking about gun control.
In early 2017, Cruz bought an AR-15-style rifle from a small nearby gun store, Sunrise Tactical Supply in Coral Springs. Officials say he passed the required government background check, and bought it legally.
In my opinion, we should be speaking about both. CNN reported that "For years before Nikolas Cruz gunned down classmates and teachers at his former high school, his mother had repeatedly called police to the home to help deal with his violent outbursts, threats and self-destructive behavior, according to police documents obtained by CNN on Friday. The incident reports, which are as recent as September 2016, describe
President Trump, in a pro-forma public statement on the Parkland, Fla., shooting, ordered flags on government buildings to be flown at half-mast through Monday, but didn't call for any reconsideration of the nation's inexcusably lax gun laws. Last February, he scrapped an Obama-era regulation making it tougher for people with mental illnesses to buy a gun.