The Correlation between Gun Laws and Drunk Driving Laws.

In 1981, my Uncle Tim was killed by a drunk driver while he was standing on a corner waiting to cross the street in Greeley, CO.  The driver of the car had been drinking in a bar for 12 hours before he got behind the wheel of his car. He was so drunk that he didn't realize that he had run over and killed my Uncle and a friend of his.

This event shattered my family, so much so that I've never really heard the full story about everything that happened. I know that they all suffered through the trial of the guy who ran my Uncle over. There was a whisper once about how when the verdict was read aloud, "A $200? fine and community service" for killing TWO people, that my Grandfather exploded in the courtroom and had to be escorted out. 

Knowing the strict laws and punishments that we have now against Drunk Driving, this verdict is hard to imagine. It took a group of Mothers who banded together to change a law that was killing innocent people to effect positive change. MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING (MADD) got its start in 1980 when 21,000 people a year were being killed due to drunk driving. My grandmother, Charlotte Whitmore became a very active member of MADD. She helped push for all of the laws that protect us now. She regularly spoke to groups of DUI offenders so they would remember and feel the impact of what could have happened when they got behind the wheel of their car drunk. This article highlights that.

As we witnessed yet another shooting yesterday in Orlando, FL, where a single man took the lives of 50 innocent people and injured 53 others with one weapon in a matter of minutes, the expected and all too common arguments on Facebook began to pop up about those who are calling for gun control and those who are staunchly against it. I got into one of those FB arguments myself and ended up deleting my thread because I felt like I didn't have the energy to sustain that with such sadness on my heart. My Grandma Charlotte would be sorely disappointed in me. She spent the remainder of her life after Tim's passing fighting with sadness on her heart every day.

Here's the thing that struck me the most yesterday, what MADD did is all that we're asking to do with stricter gun laws. When MADD started organizing in 1980 and calling for stricter laws against drunk driving, I'm sure that they were up against some opposition, but it seems crazy that if this were happening today people would speak out against it as adamantly as they do about gun control.

Can you imagine the FB statuses if people used the same argument against MADD as they do for Guns? "You can't take away my car. My car is mine and its my constitutional right to get wasted and plow someone down." "Being able to get in my car and drive drunk so I can get away from all the other drunk drivers is how I PROTECT myself." That seems crazy, but these are the EXACT same things that people ARE saying about their guns.

Would the argument, "Its not BOOZE and CARS who kill people, its PEOPLE who KILL PEOPLE" be thrown around as much as "Its not GUNS that kill PEOPLE, its PEOPLE who kill PEOPLE" is today?

People are dying because of laws that aren't protecting them. 

In 2016 so far we have had 23,317 incidents with Gun Violence so far THIS YEAR, and we're halfway through it. In 1980 21,000 people were being killed by drunk drivers. Why was this number such a catalyst for change in 1980 and we barely blink an eye at it today?

No one is saying that they want to take your guns away. What we are saying is please enact some laws that protect innocent people from being killed by Assault Rifles. These were designed for war and no civilian should be in possession of them or be able to get them so easily.

It took a group of Mother's personally affected by Drunk Driving to rally others and convince them that being able to drive drunk was a bad idea. It can be done. Sure, this gun battle, excuse the pun, is much bigger, but things can be done. How about for the first step we start thinking about this rationally?

MADD changed laws and no one lost their ability to drive. They raised the legal drinking age, (so I guess 18 year olds lost their booze (legally) for three years), but that's because we were able to look at the situation we were in objectively, intelligently and deduce, okay, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. We see now the error of our ways. We love our cars. We love to drive. We love our booze. We love to drink. We see now that the combination of those things aren't exactly the best together, lets make the intelligent choice to protect the innocent people in our country from having their lives torn apart or ended.

When will we see the error of our ways? When will we realize that fear mongering, lobbyists, money, lack of mental healthcare for those who need it, violent video games and movies that desensitize us to the loss of human life have led us to where we are now? When will we be as fearless as that group of mothers who stood up for the babies that were ripped out of their lives and taken forever? Does it have to be your SON, your DAUGHTER, your BROTHER, your SISTER, your AUNT, your UNCLE for you to finally open your eyes and take action? We are better than this, we are smarter than this and we owe it the 50 people who lost their lives yesterday while they were dancing, loving, laughing and living life to its fullest to do something about it now.

To learn more about Mothers Against Drunk Driving, visit their website.

About MADD, 

• In 1980, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, or MADD, was founded by Candy Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter was killed on her way home from a school carnival by a drunk driver. The driver had three previous DUI convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest two days earlier. When MADD was founded in 1980, more than 21,000 people were killed in drunk driving crashes each year.  Lightner and MADD helped to change the public’s attitudes about drunk driving. The group pushed for tougher legislation for those convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. MADD also successfully pushed to have the legal drinking age raised.

Shattering The Simplest Truth

Blog originally appeared at https://litupyou.wordpress.com/

I've noticed a reoccurring theme popping up in readings and conversations with friends lately. My specialty with my Clairvoyant readings seems to be relationships, specifically romantic ones, most likely because I LOVE LOVE and all things that have to do with love.

During a reading the other day my client, lets call her Not Her Real Name Cathy, asked me to look at the state of her current relationship. She's been "seeing" a guy for about 6 weeks now and the last time we did a reading together, she was pretty over the moon about him. I'll say Not Her Real Name Cathy has made leaps and bounds since our first reading together. She made so many leaps and bounds that by the time we did her second reading, roughly 2 months later, she needed another reading because she was in overwhelm, having successfully brought in a new relationship, new side gig and some acting work! I was amazed with how quickly she and I had been able to manifest everything she wanted. We started her 3rd reading, a quickie, only 30 minutes, to look at the current state of her relationship. They had been seeing one another for about 6 weeks, with neither of them pushing to "label" it or set any boundaries and Not Her Real Name Cathy had reached her limit with this arrangement.

When I called up a picture of Not Her Real Name Cathy and her gentleman caller it looked to me like he was still present with her, still standing as close as the last time I looked and his energy was present and flowing towards her. The image quickly shifted from a different point of view and from that perspective, her perspective, he appeared to be further away from him. I listened to her explain why she was worried and how he felt like he was distant, that she wanted to ask for more in the relationship, but didn't feel like he was ready to have "the talk" or if he could handle it.

The message that came through loud and clear, that I've repeated to at least 3 other friends since then was this, "Let HIM participate in the relationship." NHRNC had spent so much energy and time trying to figure out what he wanted, what he was capable of and ready for but so far all she was doing about it was guessing. Spirit wanted her to let him have a chance to be a part of the relationship by actually allowing him to participate in it. I encouraged her to ask for what she needed in the relationship by actually verbalizing and making her needs known and to give him a chance to respond with what he needs and whether or not he felt like he could meet them for her.  Don't guess. Don't assume. Don't know because one time he said this thing on Facebook about being eternally single #blessed. Give him the chance to decide.

This year, 2016, is the year that we all choose to let one another participate. Let's share how we feel when we feel scared, or ask for a hug when we need one. Stop trying to connect with someone, understand them and know them through technology or social media. We've all spent so much time FB stalking, Googling and Tweeting at people in order to understand them, connect with them, and know them, we forget that we could simply ask them how they feel, what they love, who they are.

 

We challenge you to have open, honest conversations, in person, allowing them to participate fully in the relationship that the two of you have built together. Otherwise, why even be in a relationship with someone else? We're guessing that 9 times out of 10 their answer will surprise you and fulfill your needs at the same time.

It feels like we are craving this kind of honest, open connection. If you haven't checked out The AND, its thrilling and exciting and just true, honest, connection. Or if you want a little help having  an open. honest conversation where you actually learn something about your partner, check out 36 Questions that Lead to Love.

Happy Connecting.

The Extinction of Unexpected Couples? or How Online Dating is Going to Ruin the Fun for the Rest of Us.

Recently, a friend reached out to me with a brilliant idea, she was going to set me up on a blind date with a friend of hers that she thought I would hit it off with. I've never been on a blind date so I thought, what the heck, why not? I've been pretending to online date for the past few years, and I say pretend because I go back and forth between actually following up and putting my energy into it. Which, I get, defeats the purpose, but I can only get so excited about so many people and send them enlightened, enchanting messages, only to never hear back from them all the while receiving messages from the douche bag who leads with, "Want to fuck?" for so long.

Its disheartening, so I immediately jumped at the idea of getting set up by a friend who knows me, knows who I am, what I like and presumably knows the guy she has in mind for me and thought, hey, they'd make a cute couple.

My girl texted me and said, "Can I give your info to my friend?" to which I replied, "Of course." "Great, sending it now," she said.

I never heard from the guy. Naturally, I asked my friend what happened. And she said, "Oh, he only dates Asian girls." and since I am most definitely not Asian, I didn't even get the chance to meet him.

Fine, I don't NEED to waste my time on a guy who does not want to date me from the get-go, but I had an epiphany after this happened. If this, order exactly what you want, down to height, hair color, ethnicity, online dating continues, we are going to see the Unexpected, "Really, THEY'RE together", kind of couples go extinct.

I may not be Asian, but WHAT IF, the two of us met, sparks flew and we found the love of our lives in an unexpected place? He'd spend the rest of our relationship looking at me, thinking, "Wow. Who woulda thunk it?" And maybe people who knew him would think, "Whoa, I thought he only dated Asian girls, how weird that he would fall for a white girl." (Which boggles the mind on a whole other level, because when do we get to start falling in love with people's souls instead of their packaging? But that's a whole other rant.) And perhaps I would be thinking, "I never thought I'd fall for a guy who's shorter than me, but WOW, just being next to him excites me, challenges me, inspires me. . . it doesn't make sense, but it does."

No one understood Mila Kunis dating McCauley Culkin for so long, but something about it worked!

Online dating may be expanding our dating pool by giving us access to people we'd maybe never come across, but its also limiting our ideas about what is possible. I've met many guys from Online dating and it is amazing how many times I've been VERY into someone via text and email but the second we got in the same room, face to face and felt one another's energy we were like, Holy cow, this is not going to work and WHY did I send him those racy pics? And vice- versa, walked into a room, made eye contact with a complete stranger, felt that spark, that pull, the magnetism and the knowing that somehow they were going to be a significant part of my life, even though had I come across them online I'd have swiped left.

Open your minds, open your hearts, get your head out of your computer and be OPEN to the unknown, that, my friends is when life gets FUN!