If you have been on any form of media in the last few days or around other people, you’ve heard about the recent tragedy that took place in Roanoke, Virginia. The tragedy has been broadcast on every major news station. You can’t even log onto Facebook without the event being mentioned in the form of a share, or a very opinionated post.
For those who may not fully recall the event, or who were too busy surviving the first few weeks of school for social media or television, you can continue reading to learn more.
On the morning Aug. 26, reporter Alison Parker was interviewing the executive director of the local chamber of commerce, Vicki Gardner, with photographer Adam Ward holding the camera. Parker and Ward worked for the news station WDBJ, and the story was being reported live as most local broadcast are.
Tragically, the report was interrupted by Bryce Williams, a former employee of WDBJ who had been fired from the station. Williams fatally shot both Parker and Ward on live television, while also shooting Gardner who was able to recover at the hospital and won't share the same fate as Parker and Ward.
There isn’t an official or confirmed motive for the killings, but it is known that Williams had been fired from the station for being hard to work with and his apparent anger issues. As a manhunt had been taken place for Williams, he tweeted about how Parker had been making racist comments towards him and Wilson went to human resources after working with Williams once, and these were the reasons behind choosing the two as his targets. Williams also uploaded his own recording (WARNING: Site may show video that people may find disturbing) of the shooting to his Twitter and Facebook account, with the video being taken down shortly after.
We can all agree that this event is a tragic one, and the many posts that I’ve seen on every source of media proves that everyone shares that view. The true problem I have with the situation is that people are using this event to further their own ignorant attitudes and ideals.
Right after the event, thousands of people (among many that were my facebook friends) decided to post their opinions and share pictures relating to the taking down of the LBGT pride flag and how the shooter’s race was being largely ignored compared to other shooter’s in the past. These post stemmed from people learning that Williams was black and homosexual, which should have absolutely nothing to do with this man’s crimes and shouldn’t even be focused upon.
Clearly something was wrong with Williams and people shouldn’t be pulling unimportant tidbits about him in order to bring arguments and opinions to a situation that has nothing to do with the current one. Two people have lost their lives and we aren’t doing them justice if we are still letting our anger of past events such as the decline of the Confederate flag’s presence in American culture. Williams was a man who had taken a situation into his own hands, and committed a crime that has now taken something from the family and friends of the two victims. Speaking of flags, the LGBT pride flag has on numerous occasions been demanded being taken down in comparison to the Confederate flag because of the lives and hate of the people that have represented this flag. This argument is not only bringing hate to the LBGT community, but also having absolutely nothing to do with this event other than bringing attention to the shooter and being another spiteful opinion.
As people, we need to see that this tragedy is one that we need to move forward with ideas and ways to prevent situation like this from happening again. Allowing ourselves to become more divided and angry from this tragedy is only taking a step back, when what we should be doing is allowing some sort of positive change from the terrible situation. We are people that are capable of great change, but we can’t do that if we can’t let bygones be bygones.
