On June 12th, I woke up to horrific news about a shooting incident in downtown Orlando, specifically a very well known gay club called Pulse. A terrorist mindlessly and carelessly opened fire on the club, claiming the lives of (we now know) 50+ people. After finding out that everyone I knew in Orlando was safe and sound, I released a small sigh of relief. However, my heart still broke for one of the many cities that I call home.
After a while, after the sadness dwindled down, I began to get angry. Why? I asked myself. Why does this happen? Why is there so much evil in the world? It didn’t make sense to me, why someone would think they have the right to take another person’s life. This was a life that was loved by others, a life that had a bright future a head of it, a life that could’ve gone on to do great things. It doesn’t matter if they were gay, black, white, Hispanic, Catholic, Muslim, or a vegan for all I care. No one has the right to rob another person of their own beating heart.
And then I got angrier.
How dare he? How dare he think that he could play God. How dare he think that he was acting as a soldier of God, when in reality he was doing everything that the God I believe in would condemn. How dare he choose hate over love, violence over peace, gunshots over a caring embrace. How dare he.
I don’t think my questions will ever be answered. The jerk that did this died with all the answers to this mystery. But the most important thing to remember here, is that people lost their lives. Can we just stop all the political talk for a few hours? If we let go of our differences, and band together as a country, we can do a lot of good.
The thing is, everyone’s too focused on promoting their own political agenda after a horrific event like this, that we forget the one part of ourselves that’s most important – our humanity. If we just forget the agenda for a day, we can start to remember that there are, and were, real people affected by this. They were real people with real families and real friends and real futures and all we can talk about are gun laws. How about, instead of the media focusing on what presidential candidates tweeted after the incident, we put the spotlight on the fact that One Blood, the organization that runs blood drives in Orlando, is in desperate need of O positive and negative, as well as AB, in order to save some lives. How about instead of spreading the message of fear, we spread the message of hope.
So, why? Why did this happen? I’m honestly not sure. I don’t understand why things like this happen in the world and, although it sometimes makes me angry, I have to remind myself to have faith. Have faith in the fact that there are more good people out there than there are bad. Have faith in the fact that, while the country spent the entire day arguing about gun control laws, the city of Orlando and the surrounding areas donated enough blood that most of the locations reached capacity by the end of the day. Stories like these are what we need to talk about. It’s what will unite as a country so we can make it through days like today and wake up the next day, ready to do what we need to do to stay alive.
I truly express my condolences to the families and all those that lost a loved one today. For all those that we’re affected in any way, whether a survivor, witness, friend, or worried citizen, I am so sorry. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain you’re going through. Although it might not be easy, remember to hold on to that hope, if you can, because hope is what will get you through this. God Bless.
