Thoughts on equality, guns, hate, and love in the wake of the tragedy in Orlando.

“These tragedies are happening so often now, that lamenting them is becoming a national ritual.” — Conan O’ Brien

Like many of you, I’ve spent the past 72 hours wondering what the hell happened in Orlando — and moreover, why the hell it happened. Watching countless videos from talk show hosts, hearing from our political leaders, and reading many of your words here on Medium and around the web, what stood out to me most was the above quote from Conan O’ Brien. Not because of its profoundness, but because of the harshness of its validity.

Mass shootings, murders, hatred, bigotry, terrorism, death…is becoming so routine, so ritual, that we’re becoming numb to it. We read the news, shed a tear, and move on with our life. Which, of course makes sense, we must move on and we must press forward and see the good and love that lies ahead, but there comes a time — a gut check time — where each of us has to look inward about what we can be doing, what is within our power, and what our leaders and elected officials have the power to do.

Events like what happened in Orlando need to be the anomaly. There’s no way to stop them completely, of course — but when we have more mass shootings in our country than there have been days of the year, there’s a serious problem in front of us, an epidemic, and it’s starting to become an expectation to the point that it almost feels weird if a group of innocent people haven’t died in a few days.

I absolutely do not have the answers, but here’s a couple things I do know:

• No civilian should have the right to own a semi-automatic assault rifle. Yes, people who really want to get their hands on them are going to get their hands on them. No, you should not be able to purchase them legally. It makes no sense. You can protect yourself with a pistol. You can hunt with a rifle. Having a weapon designed for a war-zone in suburban Orlando makes no sense, and defending it with an archaic “right to bear arms” argument makes even less sense. Continuing to protect that “freedom” by blocking background checks, allowing those on no-fly and/or terrorist-watch lists to legally purchase weapons, and stifling advances in gun violence research is ignorant, and enabling.
• This wasn’t “one crazy guy”. Mental health is a serious issue in our country. At the risk of stating the obvious, there’s a ton to be done that’s not being done, when it comes to addressing mental health. Every time something like this happens we chalk it up to “that guy was crazy” — but there is a systematic failure at a number of levels in addressing, helping, and supporting those with mental health issues. I can’t possibly speak to it with nearly enough intelligence to have a debate — but from what I do know and what common sense tells us, there’s not nearly enough being done. To quote Hilary Clinton: “The Orlando terrorist may be dead, but the virus that poisoned his mind remains very much alive. We must attack it with clear eyes, steady hands, unwavering determination and pride in our country and our values.”
• Hating someone because they’re not like you is wrong, and disgusting. No, that is not me passing judgement. And I don’t need my faith to tell me who I should and shouldn’t care about or treat equally. I grew up with a gay mom, plenty of gay friends, and I’ll attest first hand that it isn’t weird and the “love” isn’t different based on who you choose to go to bed with. People who hate are afraid. They’re afraid of what they don’t understand. Maybe taking the time to understand, a solid attempt at caring, and loving, would make all the change we need.
• Equality is universal. Gay, straight, black, white, male, female, Christian, Jewish, Muslim. Equality is not selective. It does not warrant a belief that “your way” is ok and another is not. The only way to move forward is to move forward together. To stand together. Inequality breeds hate and hate leads to things like what happened in Orlando. The best rebuttal to hatred and acts of terrorism is acceptance and love.

We turn to platforms like Medium to organize the thoughts in our head and attempt to make sense of it all. But it doesn’t make sense. It can’t. I woke up this morning with no intent to attempt to articulate my thoughts in writing, but as a writer with whatever platform and audience I do have, it felt more uncomfortable not to say anything.

The worst thing we can do now is to become numb to the inequality. Numb to the hate. Numb to the violence.

So we continue to push ourselves to be more educated. More informed. More accepting. More together. And we continue to love. Because at times like these, especially at times like these, love conquers all.