In wake of what seems to be an endless torrent of chaos in the news from shootings, bombings, continued atrocities in war and hate, it seems as though the world is continuing in its ever darkening decent through the downward spiral. Facebook is flooded with copious amounts of bleeding heart Liberals detesting gun violence, pointing fingers at whoever furthers their agendas, with the Republican response being, well, pretty much the same thing. However, what is left at the wayside in the wake of these events is a (what should be an overwhelming) response of love. Regardless of where you stand on the issue of gay marriage, life was taken in Orlando. We should be united in comfort of one another, instead of divided with lines in the sand and roles given to either side.
Across the pond, things continue as scheduled. Drone attacks in small villages, the countless innocents killed in them, the blatant disregard for human life caused by the turmoil over oil in the Middle East. With this comes the continued spread of hatred, fear and war mongering. Who suffers from further U.S. imperialism overseas? Not the citizens here in the States, but the congressmen who feed off of their countrymen’s increasing fears only fueling the necessity for their reelection.
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Then, there was the attacks in Paris and the shooting of a singer. Then Charleston, San Bernardino and Aurora that only furthers the expansive list. It seems that not only our country, but also our world is on the brink of some great void, which will suck us into even greater tragedy with us holding our breath in between bouts of carnage. So, with families ripped apart from killing, countries in tatters from war, cities at their knees from obscene acts of terror, what is our response in the wake of these acts?
Well, most of it becomes political with more sitting senators who, instead of choosing their normal chairs, select to place themselves on the carpet. It’s the collective gasp, solemn prayer, eye roll at the TV for, yet again, ineffective leadership and rants on social media that make up the world's response to tragedies. There’s the heart-wrenching videos seamlessly edited to evoke the most earnest of emotions of the events. The unintentional glorification of the killers by shot gunning their faces and names all over the screens of our society. It’s the emphasis of the media reporter making the perfectly placed gasp at the horrors live in real time. While there is something that’s rather morbid under the surface with our grotesque fascination and fixation on the latest calamity that occurs and how the media itself feeds on it as we turn toward them for answers and their rating sky rocket, we should respond in the right way.
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After the shooting, both front-runners for either parties in the upcoming election took to Twitter with their agenda pushing and vapid replies. Trump with his “I called it” remark and Clinton with her “more legislation” response. Is this the way our future leaders should respond to the loss of life? What if, instead of jumping on the chance to further our own ideas and add fuel to the fear, hate and carnage that already ensued, we respond with love? Why don’t we reach out to our fellow man, set ourselves aside from the killers we report on by doing the opposite of them? With a vast, and out spreading of love. Not the simple second it takes to tweet a #prayfor(insert victims here) but we start with small actions. Helping those in need around us. Opening the door for people at the store, becoming a friend to the downtrodden, loving the unlovable, making peace with our enemies. What if for once we finally emulated the love we proclaim to have on social media by living it in full, so that the next time something like this happens, we can turn and say I brought love to this dark world when others sought to bring hate. In this downpour of evil, shower people with love.
