This article does not represent the views of Her Campus FSU.
Last Monday morning, the nation woke up to the devastating news of a new shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. The previous night, on October 1st, hundreds of people were forced to dive for cover after gunfire erupted during a set at the open-air Route 91 Harvest Festival. At least 59 people have died and 527 have been taken to hospital for wounds inflicted by a shooter firing sprayed bullets into the crowds from a Mandalay Bay Hotel balcony. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, was found dead shortly after the shooting, from a self-inflicted gunshot. With the casualties of this attack surpassing the 49 dead from the Orlando shooting just last year, it has truly become evident to everyone that our world is hurting.
When I hear news like this I can’t help but ask myself how we can continue to live in a world veiled by violence and hate. Especially as a young adult who’s still in college, it’s easy to feel helpless, like I’m victim, unable to make a difference. It is even easier to talk myself into this mindset that the world is doomed and my only chance of making it is to look out for myself and let others do the same. I don’t think it would be too far to assume that many of my fellow collegiettes feel the same way.
But in the past few hours of reflection, I have come to the conclusion that this is exactly what these attackers want us to do. They want to split the masses, make us weaker, and crush community. They want to create hate, stigma, paranoia, supremacy and split our united country into a mass of islands. As the next generation, we have a chance to fight. We have a chance to show the world that Love Trumps Hate and in the literal sense, we have a chance to make a difference.
I’m not here to tell you that loving is going to miraculously heal the world. I’m not here to tell you that it’s going to be easy, either. It is sometimes easier to choose to hate over love but what I am saying is that Love, Kindness, and Respect are contagious when you give it the chance to truly flourish. Go out onto campus and create engaging relationships, donate blood for the shooting victims, create fundraisers to help the mourning families, check in with people to see how they are coping, and most of all spread love!
The worst thing you can do in situations like these is claim to be the victim. We are not the victims. A victim is someone that has no other choice. But we have a choice and a big one at that. Fight for what is right, don’t hesitate to push forward full force. Work for a world driven by kindness and compassion, not hate and violence. Don’t disqualify yourself from speaking your voice and making a mark, because you are as qualified as any other person.
By refusing to be the victims we fight this evil in the world by showing them that love is stronger than anything they can throw at us, and because of this, the world will become a better place.