Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, is nine miles from my house. Yesterday we woke to the unspeakable, horrific news of the terrorist attack and hate crime perpetrated at Pulse. In Orlando, named “The City Beautiful,” we mourn. But we will not live in fear.
Our hearts go out to the families and friends and every decent human being who is in shock over this unimaginable act, who treats the dead with respect.
We mourn the 49 people who died in the Pulse attack yesterday and the more than 50 who are wounded. They are innocent. The guilty? One man. Or is it more than the man?
Isn’t the guilty a combination of things? A radical, twisted, hate-filled, anti-LGBT, fundamentalist ideology believed by a sociopathic person who had easy access to powerful weapons and was trained in how to use them?
Don’t we need to address, as a society, each of these things to dismantle this wicked phenomenon?
Orlando will remain The City Beautiful. Thank you to the police, other first responders, the grief counselors, the hospitals, the surgeons, and everyone who helped yesterday and is still helping to heal this gaping hole in our city, in our hearts.
Peace.
P.S. – I am NOT saying that twisted, radical extremist Islam is the only venue for LGBT hatred. Other fringe religions wield that terrible sword, too, including right-wing Christian fundamentalists. I should know. I was in that group a long time ago.
Marjorie
Excellent article. I hope you will send it to your local newspapers.
Sandra
I am overwhelmed by how the people of Orlando have responded to this unspeakable tragedy, the worst in our nation’s history since 9/11/2001. There have been many many examples of selfless sacrifice motivated by love and concern for helping the victims and their families. Our city has many true heroes. I have seen almost zero politically cruel remarks against the besieged LGBT community. We can all be proud of Orlando and surrounding areas.
Linda Goddard
I am as heart-broken and outraged by the threats against the Muslim community-yet again-as I am by the horrific and violent murders and injuries of all those young, LBGT people at Pulse on Saturday evening.
When, for God’s sake, are Americans going to stop allowing hate and fear to take control of their minds and hearts?
When are we going to stop letting racism, bigotry, homophobia, anti-Islam, misogyny, and all other hates and fears of the other determine our reality?
When are we going to stop giving positions of power to people who use those fears of the other against us?
Our media, which has done a wonderful job of keeping us informed about the horrific experience at Pulse, has also used those American fear words-terrorist/S, State of Islam, etc.-which continue to feed and fuel even more fear in Americans.
Terrorist threats and terrorist attacts in this country are minuscule but are magnified to keep us fearful.
Also, this magnification of a terrorist take over in America keeps our moral and ethical focus off of our American racist attacts, attacks on the LBGT community, misogynistic attacks, etc.
One in three girls and women are raped, I think almost every day in this country-in their own homes and communities, on dates with men; domestic violence is at an all-time epidemic high; attacks on people of color happen every day in this country; attacts on lesbians, bisexuals, gays and transgender happen every day in this country.
The most dangerous place for a woman can be in her own home and community, as is so for people of color, as is so for L, G,B,T Americans-as we saw in the news just two evenings ago.
Is this the kind of America we want? Do we really want to be these kinds of Americans? Begrudging each other? Exploiting each other? Fearing and Hating each other for skin color, culture, religion, sexual orientation?
Fearing and hating each other so much so that we believe we need to take up assult arms against each other? And use our Second Amendment Rights to justify our fear and hate of each other?
I have to ask why this young American who murdered and injuried all those people at Pulse didn’t get the mental and emotional help that he so clearly needed. Did any of his family members and friends reach out to him, pull him in to a healthy circle and help him get connected to people who could have help him? I don’t mean to pass judgment here; I’m just sad.
And that he was able to buy an assault weapon. That any one of us can buy an assault weapon leaves me asking, among many other questions, how does owning an assault weapon have any connection to Second Amendment Rights? What are we arming ourselves for?
I think the fears are within us, and we’ve let them wrap themselves tightly around our intellects, our minds and our hearts.
Sad. Simply sad. So many young Americans will not get to live their lives, including the young man who murdered and injured those at Pulse on Saturday evening. Their families and friends in deep grief, from which they will need a lot of help to get beyond-including the family and friends of the young man who gunned down those victims.
Will we ever be the America we say we are? Will we ever have the courage and integrity to be the Americans we tell ourselves and each other that we are? That we tell the world, which knows differently, that we are?
So Sad,
Linda Goddard
Kate Reich
Friedrich II, King of Prussia said that we should let everybody be happy after their own fashion. His father found him in bed with his friend Katte, killed him an made Friedrich watch.
Roz
Wonderful Charlene. Also I relate to all that Linda said. However I attended the memorial at Lake Eola, and that was something that helped renew my faith in the possibility of Love over Hate. There were people of all flavors there with no political agendas, and it felt like one big hug. There was unbelievable respect shown for speakers we could only hear (in a crowd of over 50,000)—no talking, giggling, etc. And there was a large group of Muslims bussed in and handing out water in the name of peace–real Muslims, not the radicals. It was inspiring and hopeful, not like the hate and fear being peddled by lots of politicians and media. We have to prove that love wins.
Billy Williams
I feel partly responsible for so many people not being able to live their lives openly and freely for many years. Sure, I’m in company with millions there, but that doesn’t make it right for me to say that it’s not my fault because I did not commmit any acts such as this one, or say anything as hateful as a certain Way leader did. Real people, by living their lives, not by preaching at me, have changed my thinking quite a bit.