Tragety

It is a sad state of this world that the last post I did was after terrorists attacked Brussels.  We were all horrified.  We all looked for the helpers, comforted ourselves, and picked up the pieces.  The world continues to spin and we feel better.  The evil in the world continues to plot against the innocents who do our best to live our day to day lives as best we can.  And then they strike again.  We are all horrified.  We look for the helpers, comfort ourselves and pick up the pieces again.  Again.  Again.  Again.  Again.  And again....  

When will we get sick of this vicious cycle?  When will we forget about persecuting each other, hating each other over petty differences and getting all up in arms over evil before we forget about everything and go back to "normal lives"?  I'm sick of seeing evil acts.  They show us the evil of humanity at the same time as the beauty of reaching out to each other in moments of great need.  Will we ever be able to remember the great strength of humanity and simply loving each other without the need to destroy each other at the same time?  My thought is no.  Humans, in general, are destructive.  We don't know how to live and let live.  We don't know how to be happy without unifying ourselves against others with hatred over the smallest differences we can come up with.  Sometimes it is because we hate parts of ourselves.  Sometimes it is because we have defined our lives, our selves and our culture through the hatred of others.  When will we learn that hatred only breeds destruction and, eventually, that destruction is going to happen to us and it will be our own doing.  What we breed, we sow.  Hatred brings hatred and if we can't reign that in, eventually it will impact us personally.  Eventually we are going to have to let go of the hatred we have for others and come to peace that what we hate in others may be a reflection of ourselves.  If we want to destroy what we hate, we must destroy ourselves or learn to heal.

I wish there was a better answer to the hatred in the world.  Some people are so blind.

We are fickle people.  Our attention span is so small and we can not stick with a subject long enough to actually solve a problem instead of just screaming about it for a while.  A couple of weeks ago, the country was upset about transgender people being able to use one bathroom stall over another.  We screamed.  We hollered.  We called each other names and got pissed off.  Now a shooting happens at a gay night club and everyone is sending support and love to the victims... who are gay.  Suddenly, it doesn't seem to matter that they're gay or straight because they are people.  We remember that people suffer and it is needless.  We remember that we should support and love people because suffering is universal and we all feel it.  I hope we remember that lesson.  We need to keep a hold of the feeling that we must support and care about people instead of letting petty differences breed hatred.  Of course, the next gay controversy will hit and some of us will forget that we are all people and will be back to screaming about how much we hate each other.  Why can't we learn from suffering and loss?!  At the same time, we can't use this tragedy as a reason to hate other people.  The shooter was Muslim.  That should not even be a consideration.  He was a man who was consumed by violence and hatred.  That is what made him dangerous.  Not his religious belief.  Of course, since we are stupid and fickle people who can't seem to keep hatred too far from our mind, many of us will use this to drive our own hatred of a people further.  Will we never learn?  And why are we glued to the media that makes their bread and butter off of driving hysteria and making us hate each other?
The media drives us to be upset.  They want us to be upset and glue ourselves to their channels.  If they can keep us in the emotional turmoil as long as they can they make more profit.  But what do we gain from this?  We allow our emotions to be churned up until we're tired and loose interest... until the next time we let the media play us like a fiddle.  We should be upset.  We should want to know what happened and what we can learn from this to make sure it does not happen again.  We should not let business, and yes, the media outlets are businesses first and foremost, drive us and tell us what we should be upset by and how we should deal with it.  We should get away from our screens when something like this happens and immerse ourselves in humanity.  We should learn to touch each other, comfort each other and prop ourselves up together instead of soaking in the hysteria of the media light.  Personally reaching out to someone in need is the best way to grieve and find a way to bring kindness and love back to the forefront of the world after such an act of evil.  Turn the media off and go do a random act of kindness.
Another thing about the media.  We should not remember the shooter.  History should not remember his name.  We should not think about him and why he did this beyond trying to prevent it from happening again.  We learn from it then toss him into the blackness of animosity.  Shooting and killing innocent people is not the way to get your name or your cause into the forefront of society and culture.  If you shoot people, your name should be lost forever.  I don't want to know his name, who he was or how he lived his life.  We should know more about the victims then we ever should about the shooter.  They are the ones that are important.  Their lives were cut short by no fault of their own.  They were loved and lost by their loved ones.  They are the ones we should embrace.  Let the shooter's memory die.  Embrace only his family because they have suffered a loss as well.  But him, he should be gone forever.
We deal with these horrific events by focusing on the things we don't agree with and shoving to get those fixed in a way we can live with.  A shooting happens.  We are all horrified.  Some shout that if we could just take guns away or get better gun control, the problem would be solved.  They unite against this cause of guns and scream that the gun activists are to blame for the violence in our culture.  People get so upset over guns because they are upset over the tragedy.  Emotions run high.  We want to fix it.  The only way our culture seems to think we can fix things is to blame someone and shame them into going away.  In this case, we blame anyone who supports the right to own guns.  We went to punish them.  We want to take the guns away.  We yell and scream and blame... and breed the same hatred we wish would go away.
Here's my high horse.  If you take away guns, the problems is still there.  Weapons will always be available to those who want them bad enough.  Making drugs illegal has not cured addiction.  Making guns illegal will not cure violence and hatred.  It will just make it harder for those of us who value the right to carry a gun to protect ourselves and those around us from the evil people who will find a way to get a gun no matter what.  If I have a gun and am in an active shooting situation, I will put myself between those who are defenseless and the person looking to do us harm.  It is my right to carry a gun.  I will not ask you to do it.  I will not ask you to stand between me and a gunman, but I will stand between you because I choose to carry one.  I have heard "Well the security guard had a gun and the shooter still killed 50 people."  Yes, and I bet if that security guard had not had a gun, the gunman would have spent more time shooting innocent people aimlessly instead of exchanging shots with the security guard.  You may claim it was nothing but I am willing to believe that the security guard saved lives.  That shooter killed himself when confronted with the police because they were coming to confront him with the stopping power of the guns.  What would have happened if more people in that nightclub had guns?  What if it was as little as 10%?  If there were 300 people in the club, that's 30 guns to his one.  Would he have done what he did?  He was a coward and killed himself when he knew he would be confronted with force back.  Would he have stormed that club if he knew 30 people would be defending their lives and shooting back?  Would anyone looking to kill innocent people enter such a place knowing that those people would stand up and do their best to kill him first?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But I for one will feel better knowing I may be able to draw my own gun and defend myself.
Taking away someone's choice to protect themselves is not a way to end the violence.  We must look at the cause of the violence.  We must look at healing hatred and spreading understanding.  Maybe there will be a day when guns are not needed in society.  I hope that day comes.  But it is not today.  Without guns in the hands of those who will use them for good, we are sitting ducks for the people who will get them at any cost to kill anyone they hate.  Guns are a tool.  It is the person who chooses how to use it.  We need to help people choose understanding and love.


The shooting in Orlando has wounded us.  I feel the loss in my soul, as we all should.  We should feel the loss and absorb the grief and lean on one another until we find our footing again.  Life will go on but we should not let this loss fade into the monotony.  We should take this and build something from it.  Not hatred.  Not blame.  Not inaction.  We should take this and learn and grow.
Most importantly, we must learn to love and shine that light brighter than any hate.  And so, I send thoughts and love to the victims and the families of the shooting.  I can not imagine the earth shattering grief.  Please reach out.  Reach out.  We are here.  We are here and we desperately wish we could help in any way.  Reach out and we will catch you.
And now, remember the victims (the people who died, their families, the people who were injured and the people who were traumatized).  They were all someone.  They were all loved by someone.  In each of them, we lost a world of possibility.  We grieve.

Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old

Amanda Alvear, 25 years old

Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26 years old

Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33 years old

Antonio Davon Brown, 29 years old

Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old

Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28 years old

Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25 years old

Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old

Cory James Connell, 21 years old

Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 years old

Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old

Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 years old

Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 years old

Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old

Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 years old

Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old

Paul Terrell Henry, 41 years old

Frank Hernandez, 27 years old

Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old

Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 years old

Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old

Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 years old

Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25 years old

Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32 years old

Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 years old

Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49 years old

Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old

Kimberly Morris, 37 years old

Akyra Monet Murray, 18 years old

Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 years old

Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25 years old

Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old

Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old

Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old

Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 years old

Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27 years old

Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old

Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24 years old

Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24 years old

Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old

Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old

Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old

Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24 years old

Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37 years old

Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old

Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50 years old

Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old

Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 years old