Hoka hey.

I'm going to die.


And so are you.

And so too will our children die.

From the moment that we leave our mothers' wombs, we are taking the long route to become worm poop.

Nobody gets out of this life alive. Nobody.

If you know in your heart that your religion or belief system has preserved your soul forever, then that's superb, and I know that you'll have plenty of peace of mind when you accept the fact that your body will fail, at some point in the future. You. Will. Be. Dead.

2,365,200,000 looks like a big number, until you realize that it accounts for the average number of seconds that the average man will live in this country. How are you enjoying each of those two-billion-some moments? Good? Constructively?

A second is about how long you will have, to take in what is going on, when the Crisis hits, and you have to start reacting. It may be the most important second of your life, and yet it costs the same as all the others. You got it for the price of your birth. How will you spend it?

In our most recent school shooting, a man entered the front of a lecture hall, and began shooting at students. Most of them died with shots to the head. Most of them, unable to run, hid under their desks. I can already picture how the headshots occured: in modern lecture halls, there's no protection from the desks, and the students pitched forward, trying to get closer the the floor. So the tops of their heads were presented to the shooter.

My good friend Tamara posted a thread a year or so ago called "Ain't Going Out Like That." Tamara has decided that she would rather fight and die or fight and win, than to give her life up to chance. Tamara carries a pistol or three wherever she goes. She has chosen.

Some young people have chosen to obtain a high powered, high dollar college education to propel their careers forward. At most major universities, carrying a firearm is not only cause for expulsion-- it's cause for indictment. These students want to finish with their class, and carrying a gun just doesn't really seem like a worth-while option. I can understand; I was one of those students, and still would be. Why risk your career?

So there you sit. Right with the law. Right with school policy. Your notebook is half-full, your pen is half-empty, and you're trying to pay attention to what that professor is saying, when in walks a Loser who is going to make everyone else pay for his inability to adjust. He has a gun, and you don't. He starts shooting. The aisles are full. The room is a death trap. There's no way out.

And there he is. Picking people off. Maybe you're next. Or maybe chance will smile on you. How many guns does he have? How many bullets? Maybe he has enough for all of you. This can't be allowed to continue.

It's time.

Time to decide-- are you going to dig down and hide among the fallen and hope that you live? Are you going to claw your way to an exit and leave the rest in the lecture hall? How are you going to live with yourself after that?

Planes have fallen from the sky.
Students and worshipers have died in their seats and in the aisles.
Hiding doesn't work.

Today is a good day to die.

If you must die, would you not rather die falling toward your killer, stopping your attack? If you're hit, don't you want to stop him?

Take him down. Yell "Get him!!!" and take him down.

Use books, book bags, fists, keys, knees, elbows, fingerclaws, pens, pencils... but take his ass down. And kill him.

There are worse ways to die, for you, than to die while doing this.

_ _ _

*I am now given to understand that "hokahey" was not Sioux for "today is a good day to die," but rather the Sioux warrior term for the equivalent to "let's roll." That's fine. Go with it.