My back yard - Binghamton, NY

“Not in my back yard,” people say. No pig farms, no nuclear power plants, no shootings.

But it happened, just the other day, in my back yard.

A man, pushed too far. Teased and taunted and poked one too many times. He went over the edge and took a lot of people with him. 13 to be exact. Innocent people as they are being described. But not to him. To him they represented pain, and suffering, and the reason he went over the edge.

“Not in my back yard.”

But in my mind it was only a matter of time. So many people constant pushing, pushing, pushing.

Actions have consequences.

We pretend we know, but we don’t really. Because we keep pushing. Until someone goes over the edge. And only then do we stop. Long enough to shake our heads and feel sad for the victims and their families. For the innocent.

But never for the shooter. For the one we pushed over the edge.

Because things like this just don’t happen.

“Not in my back yard.”