June12th of 2016 is a date that will go down in our nation's history. The events that occurred at the nightclub Pulse resulted in the largest mass shooting the United States can recall. People were injured, people were ripped away from their loved ones, and the people will never forget. I cannot imagine the tragedy hanging over sunny Orlando like a shadow, and I in no way intend to. I cannot imagine the pain, suffering, and confusion caused by the shooter's actions, and I do not intend to. Yet I still feel an extreme sympathy towards those affected, and will keep them in my prayers. There is something about tragedy that brings out the humanity in people. People are called to action by a sadness such as Orlando's. But there is something twisted and wrong about these tragedies as well. People use them as an excuse to turn attention towards themselves.
I'm not saying that every single person who makes a status update or hashtag about Orlando is attention-seeking; though a large majority of response to the Orlando shooting deflects from the actual tragedy. People post about how they "can't believe this could happen, I was only in Orlando ___ amount of time ago" or "are deeply saddened by the tragedy of it all." You can be sad. You can be hurt. You can be shocked. But think about how one of the 53 victims who survived the shooting would feel to see you take their pain, their hurt, their tragedy, and make it about yourself and your feelings.
Sympathy is good. Sympathy is one human soul reaching out to another and saying "I'm here for you. I too feel pain." But erasing the pain of those actually affected while only talking about yours and calling it sympathy is disgusting. It's wrong and it's cruel.
The majority of the victims in Orlando were there for the weekly 'Latin Night.' Yet when people change their Facebook profile pictures and make hashtags and put rainbow decals on their cars, are they doing it in solidarity for the Orlando victims? Or are they doing it for the small detail about the victims that will make the loudest cry? The sexual orientation of the victims at Pulse is only one facet of who they are as human beings. To think that changing your profile picture to have a small rainbow in the corner is giving them the respect and sympathy they deserve is an insult. Those people were so much more. They had hobbies, jobs, and loved ones. They had plans for their lives and people they wanted to share it with.
It makes it easer to lessen the pain if we only focus on one detail of a person. But when we shrink people to less than they are, they aren't people anymore. The people, the human beings that were murdered in Orlando have become a number, a statistic. And of course a Facebook status is not to blame. Of course a hashtag is not guilty of this act. Our collective attitude as a society and our natural inclination to self is to blame.
You are more than allowed to share the pain of the victims. You are more than allowed to feel. But when our pain and our feelings overshadow those whose lives were lost or changed forever, then we have a serious problem.
