Who knows?
These days, seemingly no one.
I guess that is a bit overbroad. It depends on the context and what comes after the “who knows” bit.
If someone asks, who knows what the dinner plan is for tonight, there’s a pretty good chance that I would have an answer. I couldn’t tell you if the plan would have follow through, but I could at least tell you the plan…
The hardest questions are the “who knows why” variety.
Yesterday, the Capitol Police, who are the ones who guard the Congress in Washington, DC, lost another officer in the line of duty. A second officer is hospitalized and expected to recover.
The man who attacked the police with his car and a knife is dead and the news reports are full of questions about why he did this.
So, who does know why?
Perhaps, no one knows. Even if he were alive, he might not be able to articulate a reason, especially if he was suffering from mental illness.
Even without knowing, I hope that everyone will offer support to all the impacted families and work together to reach out to those who are suffering. I also hope that Congress will honor the service of the Capitol police who protect them and their families by expanding the number of officers and giving them more resources for training, equipment, and protection. Of course, we should also expand medical care, including mental health care, so that every person always has access to it.
We may not know why this happened, but we can work to make it less likely to happen in the future.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is to begin a post with who or whom. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2021/04/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-3-2021/
2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley!
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Top of JC's Mind 
Another sad and senseless act.
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😦
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I feel like we move from one Who Knows to the next these days. Has it always been this intense or is it a covid effect?
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I think, perhaps, that dwelling in the continual state of not knowing with the pandemic has made the many other mysteries we encounter stand in even sharper relief. Most of us were blessed with some sort of balance and predictability in our pre-pandemic life that made crises easier to bear, but now we are adding to our daily stress level with all these other disturbing events. It’s difficult.
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From the little bit that I saw on this evening’s news, it seems he had mental health problems. If so, the follow up questions are, who was helping him? Was he getting any counseling/treatment? Were there barriers to getting sufficient help (which would not surprise me at all.) Thanks for asking. We need to keep on asking. Same goes for getting help for police officers.
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Thank you for your comments. There are still so many barriers to care for those with mental health problems, not least of which are the old stigmas that stubbornly persist. We all need and deserve compassionate and appropriate care when we are suffering, no matter the nature of our illness or distress.
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