I write to you all today, greater Odyssey community, coming from a very different place than I did last week. Last week was fun. This week has not been. Yesterday, as many of you know, a man walked into an Orlando nightclub and opened fire, taking hostages and killing 50 people. The nightclub, Pulse, was a gay nightclub. That’s why it was targeted by the shooter. I won’t use his name. I refuse to give him that presence in this piece because he is not why I am writing to you. I’m writing to you to remind you of the victims. All 50 of them.

Whatever your political stances are I just ask you to put them aside for a minute. We can get back to politics later. For the moment I would like to just focus on the victims. They were at a nightclub on a Saturday night. I’m sure we can all relate to that. Long week of work and on your day off you want to go out with friends, have some fun, and have a few drinks. And why not Orlando? Beautiful place. And why not Pulse. It’s a rather nice nightclub. I’m sure that the last thing on anyone’s mind was that their Saturday night could turn into such a violent and terrible tragedy. They were good people. They were just out to blow off some steam, dance, let loose because why not?

It doesn’t matter what you believe here. It doesn’t matter what I believe. These 50 people are what matter. 50 victims that did nothing wrong, 50 innocent lives that were ended because of one person’s own bastardized and violent belief system. They came from all walks of life. So let’s talk about them. Let’s celebrate them. And let’s talk heroes. People who were there. Let’s talk the Orlando Police department and the officers who stormed into the building and took the gunman down. Let’s talk about Christopher Hansen, who, while the shooting was going on, stuffed his bandana into the bullet wound of another man. Let’s talk the heroes at Orlando Regional Medical Center who performed 26 surgeries in an effort to save as many lives as possible. Let’s talk the hundreds of people who showed up to donate blood, overwhelming blood donations centers with the outpouring of their kindness. Let’s talk about these people. Not the man who caused the terror but the people who stepped up and did what they could to be lights in the darkness. Let’s discuss all the light the victims gave to the world. These are the people who are newsworthy; these heroes, these people who were caught in a tragic whirlwind of violence. Let’s celebrate their lives and let’s keep their light shining.

But (back to politics) let’s not stop there. One of my favorite sayings is “when you pray, move your feet.” So let’s do something. Let’s figure out what it is that we can do to fix these things. What can we change about ourselves that will stop people from killing other people? I don’t think it matters what you believe. I think everyone can find common ground in the fact that this type of thing cannot happen again. We say that all the time. After Sandy Hook, after San Bernardino, we said the same things. But this cannot be our mode of operation anymore. We can’t just wait for this to happen again and again and again and again and again and again. We can’t be so gripped by fear and indecision that we don’t do anything because then these terrible people do terrible things. Can we please do something other than argue and fight and can we at least compromise? These people did not ask to die. So please don’t use them as your flag. We can do what has to be done. Maybe we don’t agree on what that is; we can find some common ground and work from there. So please. Please let us come together and finally take some steps towards fixing this. For the night is dark and full of terror—but we don’t have to be.