Like so many other Americans, I woke up early on Sunday, June 12th to a news alert about mass killings in Orlando, Florida. I mourn with the families of the victims, although I did not know either the victims or any of the families. In an underlying spiritual way, I can think of them as family and friends because I am conscious of the unfolding and unspoken experiences in the journey of my own human experience; a journey which only my Maker fully understands. Therefore, as I approach the twilight of my human existence, I am increasingly reminded of my connectedness to others, even those that I might have felt the urge to abhor at certain points in my life.
To say that I am frustrated by the frequent spate of murderous violence by gun-wielding haters in the United States would be an understatement. Of course I am frustrated by the level of violence around the world and I have written about that reality in many countries, including the land of my birth, but that is not what this article is about. Nor is it about the degree of my frustration, or even about me. It is instead about the United States and our unwillingness to stem the tide of the spiral of violence in this country.
In a country where we emphasize our collective identity and our strongly held belief in choice, as well as its associated consequences, it is increasingly baffling to understand why incidents like this should not be considered within the context of our collective choice and consequences. Incident after incident, President Obama addresses the country and begs our nation to support him in restricting access to assault weapons. Each time, we reject his pleas and choose to allow deafening megaphones to be turned up against him from our homes, streets, churches and legislatures across our country – including our U.S. Congress. We do that despite knowing that the next mass shooting is around the corner and the death toll might be higher than the one that just occurred. The consequences of our collective choice are always the same: another incident of mass killings by assault weapons, then media lights that shine on the new city and the mourners for a week or so; and then we move on and forget.
As I have followed the news reports, it has been difficult to maintain a steady state of emotions without asking questions that I know I will ask again and again until we give up on our collective amnesia. How is it that an American can go into an American club and carry out such an assault on innocent people who did not know him and were not at war with him? Why is it that he would send them to their graves so prematurely just because he could? How is it that in so short a time after the incident, supposedly religious people of faiths including mine were applauding the killings and trying to justify such a dastardly act through religious lenses that are warped at best? How is it that we can go to bed and wake up every morning knowing that this too shall pass and also knowing that nothing will be done legislatively to stop the next mass gun killings? How is it that we can even think that emphasizing that the location of the mass murders was (is) a gay club makes it alright for one of us to go there and kill our brothers and sisters who God made in His own image – just like every one of us? I am inclined to state the fact that Pulse wasn’t just a gay club and that many of the victims were not even gay but what does that even matter? How is it that we can avoid grieving as a nation when so much of the rest of the world recognizes the hurt and grieves over what has happened here? How is it that so many of us act as if the power of life and death is in our hands? How is it that we can act and speak as if we have been granted the right to determine who belongs or does not belong in heaven? How did our world get to this place where man now seems to believe that God was wrong when He said: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy”? Or that Paul was wrong when he said that if righteousness was based on the law, then Christ’s death was in vain.
In all of this, I have become convinced that our world’s biggest and toughest blight is our hatred for others who do not fit the mold that we prescribe. We argue over assault weapons despite knowing that their only purpose is to kill. Yet, we must have them because we are so full of hatred toward others and we want to be able to kill them when we decide to. We hate when we should love and we become arrogant when we should be humble and compassionate. We judge when we shouldn’t, then we hate even more. In our judgment, arrogance and hatred, we diminish the value of others and fail to realize that God made them as they are. So we refuse to accept that it is God’s choice (not ours) to have a place for His children in His mansion and that God will do that regardless of what we feel are their moral failings because morality is not righteousness and righteousness is not morality.
Today, tomorrow and every day for the foreseeable future, media lights will continue to shine on Orlando – until most of the murdered victims are buried, or until the next mass gun killings. At this moment, I am concerned about what happens when the lights go out. I am concerned because I know that this incident will again fade from our collective consciousness because that is what always happens. When lights go out is when the true character of a person or society comes through. On this fact, we have not been at our possible best as a society. May I never forget Orlando, even when the lights go out.
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I read this twice very early this morning.
It just reminds me of the madness a single person can create. The lives that are broken and everything in the world it takes to move forward. How is anyone expected to live every single day with this kind of pain? After the light you speak of that goes out; these people have to continue to move forward without their loved one.
I would hope that the light could go out and stay out for good reason because this would mean that resolve of differences and respect for others' lifestyles and an abundance of understanding for one another would be so powerful that the need to shine light any other way than the natural sun would not be needed. However, I truly don't see this happening just yet and in any capacity would love to feel differently.
Debbie
I think it is easier to just hate others because it offers a simplistic platform to vent our many frustrations. It is easier to blame others rather than to be introspective. Then we add the element of our religios leanings. Those who are supposed to shine the light and be examples of the love of God begin to think more of themselves as you so rightly put it– in thier arrogance. They have anointed themselves as arbiters and become purveyors of deceit, forgetting that God himself is more attracted to "sinners" than saints. I do not suggest that these folks in any way we're sinners–before demagogues conclude I am. shadows are easier to hide in because of their illusory qualities and so many hide behind falsehoods and deny the obvious. Until the nation faces the fact that violence is not selective and owes no one pity–then things like these will continue to happen. A gun was meant to kill whether it is an automatic or single shot. It is the voice of hate when the ability to think through things is lost. It is the vent that the diabolical heart needs to execute its plan. I pray that God give us the light that we need and shine it in the darkest places of our hearts. So that we may see ourselves as the brother and sisters we are no matter out race, color, creed and beliefs.