Thoughts and Prayers Equal "Get Under Your Desk"

Political Seven Deadly Words
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 5, 2015

"Our thoughts and prayers are with you." It is a string of words said countless times but without real thinking and prayers turned into action, they really don't mean anything at all.

Words formed in the brain cost absolutely nothing. There is no indication that the person saying the words holds any understanding of the tremendous suffering attached to the listener.

Every time there is a mass tragedy politicians make speeches, usually written by someone else and hear "our thoughts" but we never really know what the point of those words actually mean. Do they mean the speakers are actually thinking? What are they thinking about? Thinking they need to say something that will make them appear to care or are they thinking of the need to do something to prevent a repeat of the event in the future so no one else has to suffer the same fate?

We hear "our prayers" but we never really know what they are praying for. Are they praying someone else provides comfort? Gives support? Or are they actually praying for a day to come when they never have to make the same speech again? Praying for answers, solutions, plans that will work?

No, we seem to move on after one event we hoped would be the last. They were not committed to those thoughts. There was no passion behind the claim of prayers.

They walk away from the crowd and forget all about it so the next time they can use those same words again as if they are actually supposed to mean something to get folks to forget they did nothing the last time we heard those seven tiny words a four year old could utter with just as much authority.

When I was a young school girl, schools would have drills in case we were attacked. Students practiced getting under the desks in case a bomb was dropped. In a young mind, we had the sense that there was something we could do to save our lives but no teacher would tell us that doing it would do nothing with a real nuclear bomb being dropped. It was all meaningless but we were easy to delude simply because we trusted our teachers.

That same mentality is supporting the folks in charge while we look to them for answers while they really don't tell us what we need to know.

They don't want us thinking about how inept they have been thus far because if we did, we'd know that nothing will really change simply because they have no real thoughts.

We heard those words after terrorists committed mass murder in California. “Our first order of business is to send our thoughts and prayers to those who have been killed,” Obama said. Yet we've heard those words over and over and over again but nothing changes. It isn't just the current president or current members of congress using those words yet providing nothing afterwards. They could just as easily say "get under your desk" and hide.

When there is a national news story, everyone hears about the event, yet when it is about the men and women serving in our military as defenders of the rest of us, we don't hear anything about it. At least nothing real.

We hear the words "22 a day" but are never told those numbers are a fraction of what the real numbers are.

Veterans are double the civilian rate then for every one civilian there are two veterans. That would mean there are 26,666 veterans committing suicide every year and not 8,030 people keep repeating when they say "22 a day" are veteran lives lost to suicide. We know that most of them are tied to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and until we get the wrong information out of the way, we'll never be closer to actually making them aware of what really works.

And we are never reminded of the fact this has been going on for over a decade after the words, "our thoughts and prayers are with you" told over and over again to the families followed by promises to change the outcomes for others.

And then congress holds more hearings, writes bills, spends more money repeating the same exact failures that allowed the increase in suicides. "Get under your desk" so you won't have to think about how meaningless it has all been.

When you look at these pictures of members of the National Guard preparing to honor the fallen with flags, remember the price of our freedom is carried on their backs and they deserve so much more than meaningless words of thoughts and prayers.  They need us to get out from under our desks and actually demand proof of what the words actually mean to those in charge. Just because a news crews are not following around veterans committing suicide everyday so you can see it on TV doesn't mean it isn't happening.

SOLDIERS PARTICIPATE IN 'FLAGS IN' TO HONOR FALLEN DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PHOTO ESSAY