This week, my mother and I made our biweekly trip to Uconn Medical Center to meet with her geriatrician. Although the journey is less than ninety miles each way, it might as well be much further because each journey takes me away from this place of detachment and denial and back to the reality of loss and of the progression of my mother's Alzheimer's disease. Being with mom, even for a short time, is emotionally draining. The once passive and kind individual has been replaced by a woman petrified of losing control. And yet she struggles with any support we put in place to help her stay in control and stay home. The illness that took away her memory and her ability to reason prevents her from understanding her reality and the fact that the things she struggles with are the only things keeping her where she wants to be. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Back in Narragansett Wednesday afternoon, I thought a lot about my day with Mom, how she had no awareness of her reality and how she is now taking it out on my brothers and to my sisters-in-law every time we try to allow him to stay home. Somehow Mom's reality connected me with Christ's words from the Sermon on the Mount: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice do you not see the beam in your own eye? As I thought about these words, I had to ask myself how our need to remove the speck from another's eye while our inability to deal with the log in our own eye affects our ability to cope with the ongoing violence around the world. Barely a week ago, we witnessed yet another massacre of human lives. Fifty members of the LGBTQ community died at the hands of a lone gunman while innocently celebrating the night at an Orlando nightclub. Once again, as if by chance, the same discussions around gun control, immigration and the “Islamic” threat have resurfaced. Facebook's servers must have been overloaded all week as every bishop, clergyman and politician spoke out either to express their anger at the situation or to defend a political position contested by the other side of the 'aisle. I have to admit it. , I have had enough of the political and media drama that plays out every time these massacres occur. To be honest, I find this insulting to the victims of these heinous acts. As a song from the sixties during the Vietnam War asked, “When will they ever learn?” » I have to ask, “When will we ever learn?” When will we choose to remove the log from our eyes and see the deeper reality we face? When will we start working to change this culture of violence that we, as a society, have created. As Christian people, we claim to be disciples of Christ. We accept that he taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Because of what Christ taught, we are committed to seeking and serving justice while respecting the dignity of every human being. Here's the problem I see every time there is a massacre: We, as a people, look to Congress to legislate the response. Yes, we need better, more sensible gun control. Yes, we need better and more mental health resources to prevent those who lose their sense of reality from causing the ongoing carnage. Yes, it is..