The nation is still mourning the life lost in Charlottesville, Virginia due to misplaced hatred and unnecessary violence. As the nation mourned on that day, many people took to online platforms to voice their opinions.
For instance, former President Barack Obama tweeted one of the most iconic and favorited tweets in all of Twitter history. This tweet read, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
His tweet provided needed consideration and awareness of the tragedy while also giving people hope that the human heart can overcome hatred, discrimination and competition.
I have often noticed that emotion picks up on emotion, becoming something that is shared among many rather than dealt with individually. Grieving is often contagious, often becoming all-consuming. Let’s hope, for the sake of our nation, that hope is just as contagious and all-consuming, as well. Without hope, there is no way to get past these disgusting acts of violence, which are shocking us less and less due to their frequency.
Now is not a time to turn to hatred and violence, now is a time to desire change and crave acceptance. We see this being fought for on many social media platforms. Along with Barack Obama, other influential people have taken to twitter to voice their opinions on the tragedy of Charlottesville.
In fact, Bernie Sanders gave us a look into his thoughts on the tragedy as well, stating, “The white nationalist demonstration in #Charlottesville is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred that has no place in our society.” He followed this with a call to action, advising, “Now more than ever we must stand together against those who threaten our brothers and sisters.”
These two influential figures and their concern for the wellbeing of our nation prove that no matter how hard we hit rock bottom, there are still people who care enough to stand up for what is right, providing us with a voice of reason, even if it does come from a short tweet.
This day changed lives forever. All we can do now is hope that this violence will concede, change will proceed, and everyone will begin to heal.