Unknown's avatar

About Karen Molenaar Terrell

Karen's stories have appeared in *Newsweek*, *The Christian Science Monitor*, and *Pack and Paddle Magazine* and she's the author of *Are You Taking Me Home Now?: Adventures with Dad*, *The Second Hundred Years: Further Adventures with Dad*, *The Brush of Angel Wings*, *The Madcap Christian Scientist* series, *A Poem Sits on my Windowsill*, *Finding the Rainbows: Lessons from Dad and Mom*, and co-author of *The Humoristian Chronicles: A Most Unusual Fellowship*. Her photos are featured in the spring 2014 edition of the *Bellingham Review*, and the "Photos from the Field" page of the April/May 2017, December/January 2018-2019, April/May 2019, and June/July 2020 issues of of *Mother Earth News*. Her photos can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60803140@N06/ Her books can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Karen-Molenaar-Terrell/e/B0044P90RQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1312060042&sr=8-

What’s Important

The politician said guns don’t kill; people do.

She lay on the hospital bed, and closed her eyes –

She said guns were designed to kill.

battle-weary and drained. She felt

The politician said marriage is a sacred institution.

her father’s 97 year-old hand reach from his wheelchair

She said every citizen should have equal rights.

to stroke her forehead as she drifted between sleep

The politician said global warming is a natural occurrence.

and waking. “I love you,” Dad said.

She said if we continue to use fossil fuels we will destroy our planet..

Love is the one important thing.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

 

The One Important Thing

Every time I go down to visit with Moz (87) and Dad (97) I come back with one stand-out moment. Here’s today’s: I haven’t slept well the last couple nights and was feeling really drowsy. I laid down on the bed in Dad’s room and closed my eyes and… I didn’t fall asleep, exactly, but I went to that half-way place. And then I felt my dad stroking my forehead and I looked up at him, and he said, “I love you.” And that – right there – that puts everything else in perspective, doesn’t it? Love is the one important thing.

climbing boots Karen Dad

These are my dad’s boots and mine – I think this was taken on our climb of Mount Hood when I was 15.

Adding Bullet-Proof Vests to Our School Supply Lists

Our local gunshop is a couple miles from our home, down the street from the local elementary school, in the same parking lot with the post office, and next to the pre-school. Here is what it looks like:

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Yup. Those are AK-47s. I’m pretty sure. Assault rifles. Weapons made for the purpose of killing a lot of people in a very short time. Being sold in a building down the street from a school. Sharing a parking lot with a government building.  Next door to a pre-school.

And… does this strike anyone else as COMPLETELY INSANE?!!!

Here’s what it says on the gun shop’s webpage: “All American Armory is offering discount pricing to persons of faith wishing to purchase firearms to protect themselves and their families. This includes Handguns, Self Defense Shotguns, and AR’s.”

Assault rifles were designed to kill mass amounts of people in a very short time. What the heck are the “faithful” people of my community preparing for?!  Is there some zombie invasion here that no one has bothered to tell me about? When did my neighborhood suddenly become a war zone?

***

I have heard people say that teachers should be armed to protect their students from intruders. And… well… there’s an idea, for sure. Of course, shooting a gun is not like in the movies where you just point and shoot and the bad guy drops. In real life there is “collateral damage” – innocent people sometimes have an annoying tendency to get in the way of the bullets – and, in a school full of teachers armed with guns, the “collateral damage” would be school children. And even if a teacher is an expert shooter she’d have to actually have the gun on her person to be effective against an unexpected intruder, intent on murder.So, yeah – let’s make sure our teachers are walking around their classrooms with the guns holstered to their waists or shoulders for easy access. This will surely give our nation’s kindy-garteners a nice cozy feeling in their first year in school.

Of course, if the intruder is wearing body-proof armor – which is often the case – a little handgun is not going to be a very effective weapon against a man in a bullet-proof vest. So maybe we should arm our teachers with AK-47’s, also. An AK-47 might be a little bulky for a teacher to strap to her waist, but maybe she could carry her AR around in her left hand, while she holds her whiteboard marker in her right. And maybe we should wrap up all our students and teachers in bullet-proof vests like the bad guys to make it all more fair – maybe we should add bullet-proof vests to our students’ school supply lists?

Yeah. That’s the kind of world I want to live in, for sure.

In case anyone’s interested there were two more school shootings yesterday.

We Were Made for Nobler Things

We are not going to be afraid…

fear 2

I Still Believe In US

Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore  it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.
– Mary Baker Eddy

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.
– Mahatma Gandhi

How wonderful  it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
– Anne Frank

The Duty to Speak Out

There’s this mentality amongst some Americans that we shouldn’t stir things up – we shouldn’t talk about stuff that is uncomfortable, or might hurt our friends’ feelings, or might make us less popular, or whatever. And I just can’t live like that. Trying to live like that can make a person insane. So here are my thoughts this morning:

For too long we in America have let ourselves be pushed around and bullied by Big Business and politicians – by the gun industry, by mega food corporations like Monsanto, and by politicians who are in the back pockets of these hoodlums – and it is time to take our country back. It is time to make this nation, once again, a nation “by the people, of the people, and for the people” – as it was meant to be. YOU and I are “the people.” This is OUR country – and we are responsible for maintaining its well-being. It is, in fact, our duty to use our First Amendment rights of free speech to keep our nation healthy and safe. The politicians are OUR EMPLOYEES – they work for US – we are their bosses. And when our employees – the politicians who work for us – aren’t doing their job it is time to let them go. 

It is time for Americans to buck up, show some courage, and speak out. It is time to confront corporate and political bullies. and to firmly escort them out of their positions of power in our government.

Roseburg. Charleston. Newtown. Virginia Tech. Ford Hood. Aurora. Marysville, Chattanooga, Washington Navy Yard, Killeen TX, Columbine . No more. It needs to stop now.

flag

Comedian Jim Jefferies Uses the First Amendment to Talk about the Second

“In 1996 Australia had the biggest massacre on earth… Now after that they banned the guns. In the 10 years before Port Arthur there were 10 massacres. Since the gun ban in 1996 there hasn’t been a single massacre – I don’t know how or why this happened – maybe it was a coincidence… In Australia we had the biggest massacre on earth and the Australian government went ‘That’s it. No more guns!’ And we all went, ‘Yeah, right there, that seems fair enough.’ In America we had the Sandy Hook Massacre and little tiny children died and the government said, ‘MAYBE we’ll get rid of the BIG guns?’ and 50% of you said, ‘F!@# you, don’t take my guns!’… I’ve had people come up to me in my face and scream at me… ‘You cannot change the 2nd amendment!’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, you can. It’s called an amendment.’ Many of you need a Thesaurus more than you need a constitution.”

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=89d_1411198955

This Is Not Who You Are

“Grown-ups love figures… When you tell them you’ve made a new friend they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you ‘What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?’ Instead they demand ‘How old is he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?’ Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

not who you are

The Numbers Aren’t Your Identity

“Grown-ups love figures… When you tell them you’ve made a new friend they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you ‘What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?’ Instead they demand ‘How old is he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?’ Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

Minding My Own Business

photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell

photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell