How can we continue to accept the terrible loss of innocent lives?
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What happened to these bright lovely young people? What went wrong for them? Were they not kind? Helpful? Engaged? Fun-loving? Did they not donate their time to good causes—feeding the poor, helping others? Did they not laugh and play and spread joy in the world? Like any bright young people, did they not love their university, their friends, their lives here in America?
When they came to Chapel Hill, did they think they would lose their lives there, gunned down on the street like animals?
As staggeringly grotesque as it is to imagine, it is being reported they were shot to death over a parking dispute.
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Yesterday evening these three remarkable, vibrant and caring lives were snuffed out in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The lives of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were cut tragically short. As staggeringly grotesque as it is to imagine, it is being reported they were shot to death over a parking dispute.
For hours afterwards, social media lit up with demands for CNN and Fox to cover the murders. #MuslimLivesMatter has been trending all day. As a nation, we again must be in morning for the senseless loss of innocent lives. Again, we have lost some of the best and brightest young people we could hope for.
Whether it is #BlackLivesMatter or #MuslimLivesMatter. Whether it is Columbine or Newtown. Whether it is Ferguson, or Chapel Hill, those who are dying are dying because we live in a culture of bloody violence and deep distrust. And the only solution our leaders offer us is to get more guns. More loss. More lives that can never be recovered.
Want to learn about Deah, Yusor and Razan? Buzzfeed has provide a stunning window into their remarkable lives as recorded on social media.
I defy you to read through the Buzzfeed article and not feel loss. Deep and unrelenting loss.
There has to be a moment of change for us as Americans. We need to start seeing each other as human beings. We need to reach out across these false boundaries that divide us. We need to start looking for connection instead of protection. Love instead of threats of force. Acceptance instead of fear. Or, by god, we will not make it, collectively or otherwise.
Self-defense, distrust, and guns will not save us. The losses are already inconceivable.
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Self-defense, distrust, and guns will not save us. The losses are already inconceivable.
I can only offer my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of Deah, Yusor and Razan. For all the days you will not have with them. For the children who will never be born. For the loss that can never be repaid. I’m so very, very sorry.
A memorial Facebook page has been set up for them.
So very sad…such bright young lives cut short…My husband’s colleague is Sikh and he always mentions the hatred and prejudice that he feels in the workplace and elsewhere…he warns the young mentor-ees that he teaches that if they go into the deep south or into certain boon- nee towns, that they may encounter a lot of negative attitudes and treated like they are subhuman….this is such a horrific story…