Circle of Trust

In the wake of the school shooting this week, I spoke about a recent experience I had. My mother-in-law was driving past the school my two younger kids attend and noticed a police car pull in fast and jump out of his car. She immediately called my wife and me and told us what was happening. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I got in the car and started driving towards the school. I called Skinner on the way as he also has kids at the school and is an administrator in another district, so maybe he knew something or could get some information. By the time I arrived across from the school, there were about 10 squad cars there, but the police were starting the disband. It turned out someone in the school accidently triggered an alert, which notifies the local law enforcement. I was relieved that is was just a false alarm, and that the response was so rapid.

Parents and the community in Texas were not so fortunate this week. The problem of gun control is quite complex and won’t be solved over night. Dark Helmet, the President of F3 Nation, recently spoke about this in a recent thread on the Nation’s Slack. He said:

“THESE are the kinds of problems that I feel leaders (not politicians, clearly) are called to have impact on in our local communities. This, like many other issues in our world today, is a complicated and nuanced issue that will not be easily solved. As leaders, I would plead with us to remember that as we make our efforts, we are not going to get far in moving those that oppose our views by yelling or attacking. Let us use gentleness, persuasion, and understanding. Let us find views problematic without finding the people problematic. If gigantic issues like this are to be solved or even moved toward advantage, we are going to help from ALL sides of the issue. As I have said many times in the past, always remember that you and those that you disagree are always both a little right and a little wrong. Problems like this, to my knowledge, have never and likely will never get solved with hatred and demonization of other people. Hold the middle, men. Bring the extremes in from the edges to keep them from splitting us. Things like this are the times that we are preparing for daily by living the way that we live and I am of the opinion that if we all come together, we can find and execute solutions that will serve the greater good and not our egos and opinions.

Let’s lead the world out of these crises and be part of the solution rather than creating discord for evil to feed off of. I am 100% confident it is possible. It won’t be easy, but that’s not what we signed up for…”