As the nation is still grasping what happened in Orlando
this weekend, I’ve quickly seen multiple posts from everything regarding shock
and sadness, which is what we expect to debates about the "why" with most of
those stemming from more political issues – the blame of a religion, the criticism
of lack of gun control.
I can’t possibly begin to understand what drives
someone to do such a thing as what happened and I’ve never hated anything or anyone so
much that I would want to cause bodily harm and I’m sure most people
are like this, which is why we struggle with the why because it is so foreign to
comprehend.
Hate is a dangerous thing and we have lots of examples throughout history where
we can show exactly what hate can bring about, yet we don’t discuss hate,
instead these tragedies become politicized. And what happens when we do this?
Everyone wants to provide their opinion and is quick to condemn,
without pause – without reflection. Yes, the world wants answers, but 50 people
were attacked and killed without cause. And I truly feel like when people so
quickly start turning these events into political agenda items – we lose sight
of what we should be doing, which is providing support.
My feed is full of people making their stances on their
assumptions of what needs to happen and I’m over here thinking, 50 people were
murdered and ONE person was responsible, ONE person did this, ONE person. There
is no justification in what he did, absolutely none! I can’t possible begin to
understand what drives someone to such a point, but what I also don’t
understand is how people can start using this to push their own agenda spewing
hate to Christians, to Muslims, to pro-gun supporters, to LBGTQ, I don’t get
it. We will never, ever, fully understands what drives people to do horrific
actions, but on some level, it is intensified by hate.
And I’m so tired of it – if you have a social media account,
look at it - everyone all of sudden thinks they know the answer as the media spends
countless hours feeding our assumptions, furthering our own belief systems, our
own hate instead of grieving for the lives lost, for these families. We think
we are showing our support, but if you have seen Twitter lately, the hate that
is being lashed out is bewildering to me because it’s not towards the perpetrator.
And all too often it seems like when tragedies like this happen, this is the
result – let’s make this a political issue and divide more people.
Yet instead of saying no more, we allow our politicians to
exploit these tragedies to their advantage, we allow the division, we allow the
judgements, we allow the fostering of hate. Because we someone are lead to
believe that if we only had X, Y, and Z in place through this bill, act, or
legislation we could prevent this or that from happening and this is false. We
will never be able to prevent these tragedies because someone who is filled
with such hate that they are willing to take the life of others, is not
reasonable and will do whatever regardless if there are rules and regulations
in place, how can we simply ignore this and not acknowledge it?
I’m deeply saddened by what happened in Orlando, but instead
of politicizing this, what if we chose to be a little more empathic, to be a
little more supportive and more compassionate to everyone who is touched by
this tragedy, instead becoming more divided and removed. And we do see some of
these things happening like the donation line for blood – the supportive
community that follows is what should be spoken about and encouraged. I for one
am tired of the spreading of hate and would much rather see a movement raising
the bar of awareness and being a part of community that fosters an understanding
of all backgrounds rather than trying to make this a left or right issue.
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world
would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the
world change towards him. . . . We need not wait to see what others do.” Mahatma
Gandhi
