This article is not about guns. I don’t want to talk about guns.

A more important issue has surfaced from the events that transpired in Orlando over the past days. On June 12, a man walked into a nightclub intended for gay men and women with an assault weapon and proceeded to open fire, killing 49 and injuring another 50, making it the deadliest mass shooting in recent American history.

It’s bad enough that an event like this happened, but the fact that the victims were targeted because of their sexuality makes it all the more painful to swallow. Since the event occurred, there has been a spike in arguments that America has a gun problem or a homophobic problem, but it’s not these potential issues that stick in my mind the most. The thought that I can’t seem to shake is that America has developed a complacency problem riddled with despair-fueled acceptance and helplessness.

It’s turned into a well-practiced script, whenever events like these happen. The news is littered with coverage of tragic images and interviews with distraught family members. The President and other political figures make speeches, letting the country know about the tragic event and attempting to comfort the families of the victims by saying they will be held in our thoughts and prayers through this difficult time. We’ve all heard it before. So much so that, sadly, it’s become cliché.

And at the end of the script, after everyone has talked about how awful this was, we go back to our daily lives. If we’re being honest, a few days after the event, I didn’t lose much sleep over what had happened in Orlando; it won’t haunt me every night a few weeks from now either. It’s an awful thing to say and not something that I’m proud of, but it’s true and will probably be true for a majority of us.

But those who lost loved ones will never forget this pain. This pain will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Unlike us, they won’t be able to go to bed without it haunting them. They will be reminded each and every day about the pain that they suffered the night of June 12th/the following day, and where will the rest of us be? We’ll have moved on, without creating any substantial change to help prevent situations like this from happening again. I can’t even begin to fathom what it would be like to be in their situation. How would I react, individually, if this had happened to someone in my family? Sadly, that’s too hard of a question for me to even come up with an answer for because I honestly don’t know how I would be able to handle such a situation. It’s because I know that this sort of a tragedy would destroy my life that I am even more frustrated with the complacent nature of our nation’s response to shootings and mass murders.

There are too many times when it appears that we, as a nation, lack the desire to change anything and we accept our complacency as the standard norm. I firmly believe that our forefathers wouldn’t stand for complacency when facing such a tragic event, and I know they would be disappointed in our inability to stand up and work to make a positive change for the sake of those whose lives have been permanently altered. We can state that we mourn for the victims, that we pray for their families and loved ones, but until we decide to open our eyes and actually do something about the situation, those words are just as empty and meaningless as the hatred that drives these crimes. The question that really scares me is how many more people have to lose their friends and family before we collectively open up our eyes and do the right thing to show love for our fallen compatriots?

I’m an optimistic person. Most people who interact with me would agree that I have strong passions in life, I want to do the most with the time I have on this Earth, I love the people around me and think the human race is capable of many amazing and glorious things. But in times like these, I can’t help but start to lose that sense of passion for the world. This sort of event reminds me why I’m scared to have children; why I don’t want to bring new life into the world. But I remind myself that if that’s the mindset I develop from this event, evil has won.

Hate serves no purpose except taking the love and happiness that, I believe, is inherently ingrained into every one of us, and tear it apart. I believe that deep down the human race is primarily one of compassion and one of love, not of hatred, anger and despair. I have faith in this world and the people that live in it. I hope that everyone else can look at this situation, and instead of being deterred or forced to thoughts despair and hopelessness, believe that we can come together, unite ourselves under a shared sense of empathy and lovingness and work to bring about a positive change to ensure that no other families have to feel the same pain as those who lost loved ones that fateful night in Orlando, or in Sandy Hook, or Virginia Tech, or Columbine.

Winston Churchill once said that you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted every other option. I have faith that we can find it in ourselves to do the right thing, let love and care triumph over hate and violence before we have to endure another tragic event such as this past one. It’ll take work to change the script, but we’ve done it before. Let’s change it again.