The following articles were listed as “Top Stories” on June 12, 2016 at 7:32 p.m. on the USA Today website: ISIL linked to worst mass shooting in history; Orlando nightclub shooter: What we know about him; How Obama’s responded to 14 mass shootings; Three horrific hours: Inside the Orlando nightclub massacre; "Happiest place" now forever linked to deadliest shooting; Obama calls Orlando shooting "an act of terror;" Tony Awards dedicated to Orlando victims; Clinton, Trump, other politicos react to Orlando shooting.
Extensive media coverage comes with a price. We aren’t able to move past these evil acts as quickly as we once were, when we weren’t privy to so much information, and as a result we suffer through sorrow, mental anguish, unspeakable and unthinkable realities, and many unanswerable questions. We are brought on a daily basis to the deepest, darkest corners of unimaginable human behavior, and we are left to wonder, to grieve, to question, to worry. We send our thoughts and our prayers to those who are affected daily by these heinous tragedies, but somehow we don’t feel like we’re doing enough. But we are. And here’s the proof:
Roughly six months ago, I was chiding myself for not having watched any of the Tolkien-inspired "Lord of the Rings" films. The bookworm, book lover, book enthusiast that I am prevented me from watching the films without first paying tribute to the gorgeous and complex world that Tolkien created with pen and paper, and it was in reading "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" that I came across a passage that has been burned into my memory ever since.
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
I’m here to tell you that if you can find it in your heart to love unconditionally, to be selfless, to be compassionate, to be a beacon of light for those lost in the darkness, you will arm yourself and those around you against the tragedies that befall our world.
Evil wins when it makes us feel like we can’t do anything to make a difference because we live in a small town like Syracuse, N.Y. Evil wins when it makes us feel like love is a thing of the past. Evil wins when the trouble that’s 300 miles away consumes our thoughts and prevents us from bringing some good into the world two miles down the road. Evil wins when it makes us forget that our love, our kindness, our compassion, and our empathy is stronger than evil is.
It’s easy to get caught up in the media craze after a national tragedy, especially when every single channel seems to be covering the event differently than all the rest. It’s easy to lose faith in humanity when news headlines make it seem like a majority of people are on a mission to bring evil into this world. And it’s easy to find yourself wondering if there’s any point in anything if so many bad things can happen so often.
But we cannot forget that the world we live in has never been perfect, and it never will be. From this moment until the day all of us leave this earth, the headlines will inevitably be saturated with acts of terrorism and other unspeakable horrors. Our job, our responsibility as stewards of altruism, is not to get bogged down by these horrible acts, but to counter them however we can from wherever we are with hope, with love, and with courage.
