As many men and women struggle to deal with what happened on Sunday morning, our collective responses—not reactions—deserve closer examination.
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“WE MUST DO SOMETHING!”
It’s the same outcry that happens after each mass shooting in the world. Once again, we all have been rocked by a harm-seeking soul that was hell-bent on making other people suffer and die.
Omar Mateen, the killer, is being placed in a different light day after day as time creeps further out from his Sunday morning attack at the Pulse Nightclub—where he was reportedly a regular—in Orlando. A lot of the conversation right now revolves around “you should do this” and “you should do that” pontification. Those chats become inflamed as those on either side of a political and religious aisle yell too fucking loud. It happens all the time.
Now, toss into the mix new revelations on Tuesday about the killer’s reported struggle with his own sexuality, his father’s reportedly calling his son gay, and his second wife’s alleged culpability in getting him over to check out the Pulse Nightclub before he shot the place up … and another conversation begins.
Apparently, we as a society have not learned much from the fallouts of Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson, Paris, San Bernardino, Charleston, etc. We have the same words and the same people saying the same things over and over again until we are totally left pointing fingers at one another.
We seem to have a real addiction to blame.
It does not help that many of our leaders in state and federal government love to just paint the picture in different colors. Let’s see, who is to blame here? OK, it is the fault of President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, gun owners, the National Rifle Association, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, Christianity, Islam, the media, the LGBT community, me, you, blah, blah, blah. It’s also the fault of people yelling for President Obama to say these words: “The radical Muslim terrorist killed those people in that gay nightclub in Orlando.”
That is a hell of a lot of blaming.
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Many years ago, John Lennon wrote the line “Love is the answer” as part of his song “Mind Games.”
The cult of mass shootings leaves me longing to even wonder again if love exists in the midst of chaos. Where is love in the midst of anger? I choose to believe love is always present, yet love and anger cannot totally exist in the same space. We look for answers from others, only to be left lurching in the deserts of our own souls and totally lacking a direction.
Do you really think Clinton or Trump have real, tangible answers to mass shootings? They are too busy beating on each other in their race to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2017. Neither one has been totally presidential in their reactions to Orlando. They are simply saying what their followers want them to say.
Look at the scene in Orlando right now. Did you see the long line of people who voluntarily gave blood on Sunday afternoon? I bet there were heterosexual and homosexual people in that line. Need I remind you that the attack took place nearly 24 hours after pop singer Christine Grimmie was shot and killed while signing autographs after her performance … also in Orlando.
It’s tiring. It’s exhausting. It’s enough.
Orlando. It is home to Walt Disney World. People think of Orlando and have happy memories of going there for family vacations or getaways from life’s stressors.
Now, sadly, Orlando falls in line with those other cities of infamy.
I really cannot deeply even fathom how those in the LGBT community in Orlando and around the world feel. I’m not in their lives and space, so to say that “I know how they feel” simply is ridiculous. I can empathize with the subject of pain, anguish and sadness.
All that the men and women at the Pulse Nightclub were doing was having a good time. They were having fun. Just because their lifestyle doesn’t suit a lot of people in this universe, well, what’s it to you?
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We have not really learned one damned thing to effectively change this culture of mass shootings. It nearly happened on Tuesday as a gunman took hostages in an Amarillo, Texas, Wal-Mart before law enforcement killed the gunman. It will happen again. Every time one of these incidents occurs, the hue and cry from so many is “WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! We must go after ISIS! We must go after THEM!”
Sure, something HAS TO BE DONE. Meanwhile in my life, I have to keep working, put food on the table, pay bills, stay clean and sober, keep getting in physical shape, and make sure that I keep a roof over my head. You have your own personal life filled with things that you need to do each day. We all do.
Yet what can we do in this moment? What one single step can we all just attempt to take?
Love yourself. Love those who differ in beliefs, actions, thoughts and behaviors from you. To be clear, I am not saying sit idly by and let people be abused. If that happens and you know about it, then get off your ass and take action. What I am saying is that love and compassion are powerful forces that can change the world. The first place, though, that I – as a human being – have to start with love and compassion is within me. “You” cannot fix me. “You” can come along and help me and, thankfully, many men and women have done so with love and compassion.
May we strive to love, honor and respect one another each day.
Photo: Getty Images
Overall this was a good article Joe. There is way too much blaming going on and if this simple idea is how we solve all the issues then God or anyone else or think save us all. Those two idiots running for the WH could easily bring this down to policy but as you said both are beating on each other like rock em sock em robots. No accident one was red and one was blue. Which mean ns on the whole both are unqualified. I want a guy or woman like the jeff daniels character who calls it out… Read more »
The shooting is obviously connected to questions of terrorism, LGBT issues, mental health, and gun control. What got a little lost, and admittedly may not deserve the same attention as these things, is the following part: The shooter was a native-born U.S. citizen, and roughly half of those killed were from Puerto Rico (which means they may or may not have been U.S. citizens). In some ways, this attack was also about immigration. It was an attack on an international community, not just a Florida one or a U.S. one. This was not a simple case of a “foreign Islamic… Read more »