The first thing I saw when I woke up this morning were multiple notifications on my phone from news apps informing me of last night's massacre in Las Vegas. I took a screenshot and sent it to my friends. After years of being around me they've come to accept that I'm going to send them a text when anything abnormal happens, anywhere in the world. Not long after I sent the text this morning I logged onto facebook and twitter and scrolled through my newsfeed. Understandably I saw calls for prayer and the responses of grief and predictably I saw the immediate response for gun control. This is something that bothers me greatly. I've never understood the mindset that says take away guns and people will be safer. If people want something bad enough they will find a way to get it. Look at illegal drugs. Ban guns, go ahead, I can guarantee you things like this won't stop. I've never met or read about a criminal that followed the law. Alas, this post is not about gun control or those who call for it.
While scrolling through my newsfeed I came upon comment after comment of 'This is the new norm in America' 'Why does this only happen in America? Guns' 'This is nothing new'. This response is worse than yelling for an end to all guns in the United States. We've lost the ability to grieve as people. It is easier to push an agenda than to love. It's easier to yell and shout and throw blame around than it is to hurt and grieve with our fellow man. I beg of you, don't let it be this way. Apathy will solve nothing. Hurt. Grieve. Cry. FEEL. Do no wall yourself off with the excuse of some agenda or another. Let yourself feel the pain that times like this produce. Reject the narrative that says we just have to get used to this. We do not have to be alright with this. We do no have to consider this pain, or heinous acts like this the new normal for this country or anywhere else for that matter.
I was eleven when the twin towers were attacked on September 11th. I watched a nation rise together in support of New York. I watched a city full of strangers rally together to help each other as news outlets broadcasted raw footage of them helping each other amidst the dust and debris of the fallen towers. We grieved as a nation. We hurt. We cried. We felt. This is not 9/11 America. We've taken the easy way out. This nation has morphed into a grotesque shell of country whose people no longer reach out to each other because we've forgotten what made America different than other nations around the world;Her people. It isn't the sameness that makes people want to live here. It's the difference. People have come for centuries to make their home here and in doing so have created a culture that is solely ours and can't be replicated.
In the wake of each tragedy be it natural disaster or man made we become a little more jaded. Our skin gets tougher and our inability to reach out to each other grows that much stronger. This is not the way forward but thankfully not even last night has completely squashed our humanity. As of 5PM this evening the current wait time to donate blood in Las Vegas was 8 hours. I know that we Americans love to stand in line for things and we can be fanatic about getting things first but this gives me hope that perhaps we've not altogether lost ourselves. There were plenty of police officers and strangers risking their lives to save others last night while bullets ripped through the night.
So, I'm asking you, if you read this, for just a moment let yourself grieve. Forget an agenda. Forget your political party. Feel. Allow yourself to hurt for those who are suffering. As a nation we've fallen and risen countless times but it has always been together. Do no let evil win. You cannot regulate evil you can only fight it with love. Reach out to your neighbors. Love people.
Reject apathy. This is not the new norm but it is a chance to show the world that we will not be ripped apart by hate. We will do that not with loud voices but acts of kindness, selflessness, and love.
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