That said, I feel, in the short time subsequent to the horrific gun violence in Orlando, obligated to say something about this event.
On Saturday night I was, like many American millenials, in a club/bar of some kind having an awesome time. Around the 2am hour of Sunday morning, I was safely leaving towards home with my friends. We all made it home safely that night, and fell asleep to the peaceful sound of silence.
Those were the first thoughts I had the moment I found out about the shooting. I was instantaneously paralyzed with grief. "This could have happened to anyone," I thought. Friends, loved ones, students, brothers, mothers, and sisters were taken away from us that morning. Though we do not know them like the living loved ones of the victims undoubtedly do, I use the word "us" because they were our friends, loved ones, students, brothers, mothers, and sisters, too. This is how we should view them.
Empathy is a lost emotion that hides behind the shadows of political foolishness and is consumed by fear. We cannot allow that to be true. We currently live in a world where a man named Trump is able to use the death of 49 people as a means to deliver an "I told you so" message without any societal repercussions. His messages, unfortunately, are validated by the millions of people that side with this ignoramus.
It hurts.
To my friends and family: I love you. If these last three years have proven anything, it is that life is more fleeting than ever before. I hope that you or I are not the victims of tragedy, but recent history is telling me that it can happen at any time. Therefore, in case I am unable to tell you before either of us perish, you should know that I love you.
I sincerely believe that I would not have to deliver this somber, morbid message if change happened after 20 children and 6 heroes were slaughtered - among other such mass murders that happen more often than there are NOT mass murders per year - by the same weapons that slaughtered the 49 friends, loved ones, students, brothers, mothers, and sisters in Orlando. In 3 plus years since that deadly attack nothing has changed. Therefore, it should not behoove me to believe that change will happen now, right? There should be change. I should believe that anything, even something, would change. If I lived in Australia I would be able to accept such belief. But recent history tells me that I would be a fool to accept that belief as reality in the "land of the free
Outside of these attacks, the majority of the country has spoken. They do not want change. They want governmental status quo, in the name of Hillary Clinton, or 50 plus years of regression, in the name of Donald Trump. That is what the country wants. This is not even a point of argument. It is the truth. (As an aside: I would gladly take status quo - with the hint of social progress as the first female president of the USA - over live-action "the floor is lava" any day.)
Watching Anderson Cooper read off every individual person who died Sunday morning, along with brief stories about them, was one of the most heart-wrenching segments I have watched in my 25 years of life. Is it not sad that these people are a designated blip on the mass-shootings-in-the-US-this-year map? And if change does not happen, that's all they'll ever be. They will have died for nothing. The LEAST we can do as a country is to ensure that these people died for progress. Died for prevention. Died for safety. Died for something more than another, "Oh, hey look, that thing happened again." I'm perfectly fine with talking about these horrific occurrences, but only if talking about it leads to doing something about it. Only if it leads to action.
Because action speaks louder than any moments of silence, any continuing news coverage, and any somber fucking blog post.
Kudos to all of the first responders, to all the heroes that came out of Sunday morning, and to all of the blood donors and donators that flocked to the attention of the suffering people left in the carnage. You are the silver-lining in all of this. You are Orlando.
I leave you with this John Green video in remembrance of the fallen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkypKKtjfMU
- PatInTheHat
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