Last week, a tragedy struck the Orlando gay club, Pulse. It's an unfortunate and terribly saddening event. It's as if the "sunshine" of Orlando came to a halt on the night 103 people were injured and killed; 50 dead (including the shooter), 53 injured.
Tragedies happen and, unfortunately, there is no such thing as "living in peace." In my opinion, the term "living in peace," or being "one" as a people, is something created by the social disbelief that these things happen; the media encourages living in peace as one entity. Unfortunately, true peace is not in reach. There are too many people in this world with different ideologies and ideas at the same time to have conformity. The entire world is never going to agree to a certain conformity. We yearn for a society without moral, social and racial conflicts. At this point of time, no matter how much we try to make the world a better place, it will never be a "better" place; it will never be a perfect place, a utopia. Peace is out of reach.
Instead of focusing on making the world a better place with weapon bans, limitations, and government decisions, perhaps we should focus on ourselves and be better humans. Perhaps we should have more empathy; perhaps we should be more sincere with one another; perhaps we shouldn't be pushing each other down to get to the top. Before we even try to make the world a better place, perhaps our hearts should be in the right place.
A small drop of hatred can ruin a person. Jealousy kills the heart; gossip poisons the mouth. It's amazing how much a bit of hatred can grow into the death of not only others but for oneself. The Orlando Massacre was a selfish act of hatred. We don't know and cannot imagine what was going through Omar Mateen's head as he killed and injured innocent civilians who wanted nothing but to have fun. Incidents like this remind us all how fragile the human life really is. Victims were expecting to have a night of pure fun and entertainment, but the survivors were left with a hauntingly terrifying experience that will never go away.
Despite the act, we need not be afraid, because hatred wants us to live in fear. We need to live not in harmony nor in peace, but in a state of empathy; a state of understanding each other to the best of our abilities, a state of failing hatred. We need to live in a state of human empathy to the best we can. We cannot speak for the world; we need to speak for ourselves and improve on ourselves, then we can improve the world by individually becoming a better society.
