Dear Fellow Americans,
I write to you with a heavy heart. This past week has been a devastating one for the U.S. A man, who's name isn’t worth mentioning, took it upon himself to walk into a nightclub and decide who lived and who died.
Forty-nine. That’s the number of innocent lives taken away far too soon.
Forty-nine. Mothers, daughters, sisters, girlfriends, wives, fathers, brothers, sons, boyfriends, husbands all taken away from their loved ones.
One man. The man that took it upon himself and placed judgement where it wasn’t his place to judge. A man who made a decision to play God.
This man murdered loved ones, but who or what do we blame it on? Guns. People seem to forget that it takes a person behind the gun with their finger pulling the trigger for the gun to go off. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.
I could go on for days about how stripping people of the Second Amendment right isn’t the answer, I mean because we all know criminals follow the law. –insert sarcasm- But this sorry excuse for a human being has had enough of our attention.
Moving on…
My heart hurts every day with every article I read about these lives that were lost. The articles that talk about how good of people they were. Articles about how some of them shielded their loved ones from the gunfire which ultimately took their life. What saddens me even more is that it takes a tragedy of this magnitude, and bigger, for us to band together. Lives have to be lost for us to become caring, compassionate people. This needs to stop. We need to be these caring, compassionate people all the time.
Stand up for what you believe in. Love thy neighbor, even if you don’t agree with their lifestyle.
There’s a story I want to share with you all that touched my soul. It didn’t make headlines or the news, but it shows that there is still hope for us.
A woman, who comes into my job regularly, came in teary eyed. When I asked her what was wrong she told me she had just got off the phone with her son that lives in Orlando, Florida. My heart immediately sunk until she told me what he had to say…
He had been walking down the street past the memorial for those that were lost in the shooting at Pulse Nightclub. A man, who appeared to be homeless, sat in front of the memorial. Being the caring man he is, he stopped and asked the man if he needed anything. The man replied no, that he was fine. He wasn’t homeless. When the woman’s son asked the man why he was there then the man simply replied, “Because someone needs to keep their candles burning.” All the woman’s son could do was hug the man.
It may seem silly to some, but this… this… I can’t even find the words to describe to you the feelings I had when the woman told me this story. This story gave me hope. Hope that we aren’t doomed as a country. Hope that there are still kind-hearted, empathetic people still out there.
So my point here is don’t wait for tragedy to strike to suddenly become a loving human being.
Donate Blood.
Feed the homeless.
Volunteer to make a difference.
Love your neighbor without stipulations.
And always make sure to tell your loved ones how much you love and care for them.
Signed,
A Fellow Human Being
