A Moment of Silence for Each and Every Murder Victim Every Day

I was reading and I had the pregame for the Packers/Commanders on TV. I was not really paying attention until I heard the announcer say there will be a moment of silence for the murder of Charlie Kirk. It made me think we should as a country have a moment of silence each day for a murder victim that day. The moment of silence would be one minute per murder victim each day.

Based on 2023 statistics, this would be 62 minutes every day or a little over an hour each day. Let me repeat this, if we spend one minute per day in silence for every murder victim that day, we would spend over an hour each day doing this. We as a county should do this.

Having a moment of silence for one murder victim makes no sense to me unless we do it every day for each and every murder victim. Do you think one life has more value than another. If you do, then you are not a follower of the teachings of Jesus nor do you ascribe to American historical values.

I have a good PB friend whose daughter was murdered a couple of years ago. She has triggers and one happened on the PB courts recently. I knew it and sat next to her holding her and telling her whatever she was feeling was all right. I also told her this is part of her, a very sad part, and will never go away and that’s also ok. Do you think the life of any family member, friend, co-worker of a murder victim is ever the same as they go on living. Of course not.

We recently had the anniversary of the 9/11 horrific attack on our country by terrorists. We mobilized with a unified purpose as a country and went after the terrorists and any country we felt was complicit. Maybe we could have done this differently or better, but it was right we did so. At least I think so. But for perspective purposes, 2,977 people died on 9/11 which is equates to about 7 weeks of murders in the US. Why don’t we put the same time effort and money into stopping murders.

We have the second most murders annually of any country and the 6th highest murder rate of any county in the world. Why do we accept murder as a normal part of life?Other countries do not.

I doubt if we can eliminate murders, but why do we accept them? And why is the US a leader in murders?

For the record, I do not remember ever hearing about Charlie Kirk before his murder. If I did, I would have just written him off as another white evangelist nationalist who believes white men superior, we’re not – all races are equal, women are subservient, women are equal, and the US is a Christian country – it is not, one of the foundations of the US is religious freedom. It is not now nor has the US ever been a Christian country. When I reviewed some of the things he has said, I do not believe he was a follower of the teachings of Jesus or believed in US democracy or freedom.

But I do not believe he should have been murdered. I was very saddened to see some posts stating he deserved to die because of his beliefs and rhetoric. I will not accept that and disappointed in anyone who feels that way.

Also for the record I am equally saddened and disappointed by any Republican who though Kirk’s murder was a tragedy but the recent of murder of two Democrats in Minnesota was not. Anyone who believes that is not a follower of Jesus nor believes in democracy or the Bill of Rights.

For those who think the murder represents a dark turn for the US, we have been dark for a long time. We started going dark when we as a country elected Republican politicians who felt it was more important to protect the gun industry then it was to protect children in schools. And yes, about 80% of murders in the US are done by firearms.

Going forward, I think every murder victim in the US should be National news and every day we should have a one minute moment of silence for each person murdered that day. Then we could no longer pretend that murder is not a common occurrence in the US. We can do better and we should. And it starts with regulating the gun industry, taxing the gun industry, requiring technological safeguards on each firearm, and voting only for politicians who will support and vote for all of the above.

I truly believe if every American spent 1 minute in a moment of silence for each murder victim that day, with six months of the election our murder rate would begin to decline to one of the lowest in the world.