Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I think it is quite apt that the gay community have adopted the rainbow flag as their emblem. I suppose it symbolises that it takes all the colours of the rainbow to make the human race - and various shades as well. I watched the news this evening about the senseless killing of innocent people just having fun in a gay club in America. I do think the word "senseless" is appropriate here, because this loss of life makes no sense.

I have written many times before about how I fail to see just what business the sex life of two consenting adults is to anyone else except those two consenting adults. I don't care if they are the same sex. I would much rather see two people happy and in love than one bitter individual with a machine gun! The fact that the killer was apparently so incensed when witnessing two men kissing that it turned him into a homicidal maniac makes me doubt his sexuality. This seemingly macho man seemed to hate his wife: if reports are correct he abused her on a daily basis. Was the sight of two men kissing reminding him of something he felt he was unable to achieve? Or was it, as I suspect, the mind of a deeply disturbed individual, the type of person that only an idiot would give a gun to?

I don't want to make light of this situation but it does remind me of the Wizard of Oz. The gay community have long referred themselves as “friends of Dorothy”.  (I don't know if this term is still PC or not!)  But most of my gay friends just want to live a normal life, and why shouldn't they? I suppose their Kansas is where they are accepted for who they are, where they can live without threat and fear. Why someone's sexuality should be a concern to anyone else is beyond me, as long as they are with other consenting like-minded adults.

The murderer of these innocent people is the Cowardly Lion.  If he only had the courage to question his own beliefs. We have seen a lot of these lately.  You know the type: they kill in the name of something. These people call themselves soldiers but they only go after unsuspecting, unarmed, innocent civilians. This is not soldiering, this is cold-blooded murdering!

The Tin Man is the ideology that spawns this intolerance. If it only had a heart. The ideology that claims to be about love and higher awareness is in reality crude and bigoted. All religions are based on fear: if you're not like us, you will suffer. The problem is, what is normal? All religions have members with different likes and dislikes and their hatred and bigotry stop people from really achieving true love and understanding.

The Scarecrow is our old friend Donald Trump. If he only had a brain! The fact that he sent such a gloating tweet when hearing the news of the massacre shows that he has no understanding of how to be a true statesman. Telling people that his inane comments about how Muslims should be barred from America are proven true by the act of this one individual! What he failed to mention was the gunman was born and bred in America.  He was brought up in a middle-class family in New York.  How could Trump ban an American citizen from living in his home country?

I think the actual Wizard has to be the American gun lobby, as Moses (Charlton Heston) said, guns will have to be taken “from my cold dead hands.”  Well the Orlando gunman is dead now! What, he wasn't really Moses? The fact that such an unstable individual found it so easy to purchase an assault rifle shows that something has to change with the American gun laws. But the lobby is just too powerful.  After the last massacre that took place in a school in the States, there was an ad campaign from the gun lobby offering guns and lessons on how to use them for teachers in schools! The bizarre logic behind this was next time a gunman breaks into a school the teachers can forget about their students and turn into Rambo! They can seek out the gunman and shoot him dead in front of the young people they are trying to educate away from such violence. Statistics have proven time after time that armed civilians do nothing when confronted by a determined gunman, they just run and hide like all the other victims. But the gun lobby, just like the Wizard of Oz, makes false claims and gives false hope.

My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones through this mindless act. I know that people all over the world have come together to show their solidarity with the gay community (and it's about time). I do hope that not only the gay community in Orlando but everyone in the town gets together and rebuilds the nightclub. I hope that the whole community stands as one and shows that it will not stand such intolerance. I hope that everyone affected by this heinous crime can themselves show restraint and respect. This was a sick individual, not a group of people whom he purported to represent. I hope that the American people can now see the stupidity of their gun laws. This will not be the last massacre, though, because if you let insane people hold guns, they will do insane things with them! Somehow I think all these changes will only happen “somewhere over the rainbow”.