What happened?
When did we start waking up everyday to another breaking-news headline about another mass shooting, another man shot in cold blood, another police officer, another terrorist, another tragedy? When did we stop being surprised? When did that just become the new normal?
I pondered for days about what I was going to write about this week, what tragedy I was going to cover. Until I realized that it does not really matter which one I choose to write about this week because there will be ten more tragedies I can choose from next week. And it saddens me because I know that in two weeks, those ten tragedies will be forgotten in the wake of ten more tragedies that will inevitably have happened in those two weeks from now.
And somehow, that has just become "okay".
The world has fallen into this terrible pit of complacency with the way things are and that is why we will never see a change in the society that is crumbling at our feet.
I remember a time when the American flag used to blow in the wind with pride and freedom, but now remains untouched at half-mast because we are tired of raising and lowering it everyday in the wake of another disaster. Once, there was a time when we used to feel this certain personal heartbreak when our country was attacked. We would cry and grieve as if the victims were one of our own. But now, now we converse about it, we write a post on Facebook with another "PrayFor..." hashtag and then we continue on and forget. We go on and wait for the next tragedy to happen so we can just add yet another city to that long list of affected places.
It has become almost become ordinary.
We are finding ourselves growing more and more comfortable with this constant state of violence and hatred. We are moving on too quickly from tragedies because they no longer hurt us like they used to. We have stopped using our change-seeking voices because we fear that we will no longer be heard over the bitter, hate-filled screaming. Our children are being taught that it is okay to hate because it is easier than loving. Our children are growing up thinking that the world they are living in is normal. The bitterness, the intolerance, the hatred, the violence, the fear. It is all normal to them.
I am tired of waking up to breaking-news headlines about another tragedy that I will inevitably find myself scrolling past with nothing more than a sad thought. With each new calamity, I find myself growing more and more hopeless that the world I used to know will never be found in this virulent darkness.
We are all guilty of hardening our hearts to the cold and bitter world because it feels like ignoring it is the only option we have left. We are all guilty of scrolling past another tragic story with nothing more than a frown before continuing on with day without another thought. We are all guilty of staying silent in fear that our voices will not be heard.
If you want to make a difference in the world, the first thing you must do it be different from the world. In a world where everyone is silent, even only one voice can be powerful.
So do not be silent. Use your voice, make a change, do not be complacent with this new 'normal'.
