In the past seven days, three tragedies have come out of Orlando that have shocked the entire world. Over 50 lives have were taken in these tragedies, and countless more have been changed forever because of these senseless incidents. What should be done in the days, weeks, months and years after these events? How do we react in a time full of hatred and fear? What do we do as a country? These questions have been raised countless times on every media platform possible because no one knows what to do. No one knows where to turn or how to get it moving without pissing off half of our population because to be honest not everyone is going to be happy with the possible outcomes.
On the one hand we can all react like Donald Trump. We can scream that we need better immigration policies because all Muslims are terrorists (those are his ideas, not mine, though they're not his exact words) and that Obama is going to try to take away our guns. We can say that “Obama has something going on’” (actually Trump’s words from multiple interviews), implying that he’s a terrorist sympathizer, and just continue to yell about Muslims. We can react like Trump––sure. But where will it get us?
On the other hand we can react like Obama. We can offer our sincere apologies and reach out to the community and give whatever we can to soften the blow at a difficult time like this. We can understand that it’s not always going to be as easy as shutting out immigrants to our country, and it is not going to be as easy as yelling about the issue. We can react like Obama and understand that first and foremost lives were lost, and that is the heaviest thing on our minds at the moment.
I think the best reaction from this stunning incident can be found coming from Jimmy Fallon. In an address posted to his Facebook he says: “This country was built on the idea that we do not all agree on everything; that we are a tolerant, free nation that encourages debate and free thinking, believing, or not, in what you choose.” Fallon goes on to question how he can explain this to his children, and asks himself, if they are gay, how will this teach his children anything? In another section of his address he states: “We need to support each other's differences, and worry less about our own differences. Get back to debate and away from believing or supporting the idea that if someone does not live the way you want them to live, you just buy a gun and kill them, bomb them up. That is not okay. We need to get back to being brave enough to accept that we have different opinions, and that’s okay, because that is what America is built on.” I think Fallon hits it right on the head. Instead of looking at it from the angle that these radical terrorists, American or not, these are people here to hurt us and we need to look at it as one bad guy and 49 good guys.
Because that is all it was. One bad guy decided to do a horrible thing to 49 loving and beautiful people, and when it comes down to it, it does not matter what God he prayed to or where his allegiance lay. All that matters at this moment is that we lost 49 beautiful souls to hatred and anger. In the coming days, weeks, months and years we can figure out where we need to take this country but for now we need to stay strong and love the people around us because it could happen anytime and anywhere.
Stay strong, Orlando. We love you.
You can check out Jimmy Fallon’s full address here.
