In the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, we have seen a plethora of different reactions and perspectives about the tragedy. Some of the most interesting reactions, to me, were from people who were feeling so much pain for the victims that they failed to respect the way others think about these kinds of events.
While most of the general public tweeted and posted their prayers and condolences, others decided to use the Orlando shooting to shed light on the political issues facing our country. Perhaps we need to expand our “conceal and carry” laws so we can better protect ourselves. Maybe we need to regulate gun ownership and improve our background check system. Maybe we just need to go out and kick ISIS’ ass. Whatever the case may be, there were tons of people, politicians and citizens alike, who voiced their political opinions online after hearing about the shooting. This was when I saw other people demanding that they quit “pushing their agenda” during such a difficult time and simply grieve. The problem is that to these people, it wasn’t about pushing any kind of agenda. This is just the way that some people sympathize.
Some people do not simply grieve. When tragedy strikes, as bad as it may be, some people do not break down, express their heartfelt sorrows and leave it at that. In the midst of tragedy, many people will educate themselves on every aspect of the incident and then take some action. They will watch the news, keep up with all the updates, and they will think about how or why something so terrible could happen in our society. A person who is, for example, as fully engaged as possible in wondering how to make the future a better place, cannot help but think about these kinds of issues and express them as fully as they can. The mass shooting at Pulse nightclub was so enraging to some because it was possible for an average American to purchase a gun along with enough ammunition to take fifty lives and injure over fifty more. For some people, blaming insanity or hate is not enough when it comes to something like this. Somewhere along the way we are failing to spread love around the world and keep each other safe. As a result, people react the way they normally would and speak their minds about the issues that they feel caused the event to happen in the first place, and this reaction does not make them feel any more or less sorry for the victims and their families. It is simply the way they react to tragedy because they see it as more than just that. As politicians and vigilant citizens, they almost feel responsible and look to find any way that they can take action to prevent it from ever happening again. This is why you see so many Americans pushing for either more guns to ensure public safety or more legislation to make it more difficult to let these weapons fall into the wrong hands.
The way others can sometimes perceive a politically driven person’s reactions to national tragedies proves something that has already been somewhat obvious to me. Some people do not care about politics. They don’t care to vote, they don’t care what’s on the news, and they live in a completely different realm of thought than others. All of this is completely okay, but when a person who cares about politics expresses themselves fittingly—by suggesting gun control legislation following a mass shooting, for instance—it is perceived that they are pushing their agenda and using massacres for their own political benefit. This is not the case. Everyone reacts in different ways towards different things, and if we let political thinkers express themselves and talk about the issues, we can open up a very important conversation and possibly even solve the problems that allow a man to shoot up a nightclub.
