It’s Not Over: How the Vegas Shooting is Already an Afterthought Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, you know that the world has seen some brutally tough times. Even if you have been living under said rock, you’ve probably gotten wind of things by now. It’s that bad. Between shootings and natural disasters, it’s all not looking too great at the moment. Just when the news on one tragedy dies down, another strikes. It seems that there is a never ending stream of horrific events. Throughout all this I’ve noticed something bittersweet: how quickly people move on. I say this is bittersweet because on the one hand I think it’s truly inspiring how resilient human beings are. We have seen through all the tough times that you can bounce back from things that seemed impossible. On the other hand, however, I think it’s deeply saddening how easy it seems for people to forget.
The Vegas shooting hit me really hard. I think it hit a lot of people really hard. So soon after all the hurricanes and the ongoing devastation of Puerto Rico, we get thrown another unbearable attack. I saw such a huge uproar on social media from celebrities begging for people to take action over gun laws. All of a sudden things seem more desperate and terrifying. It felt like we were starting to realize that things are only getting worse, not better.
As scary as all of that was, what seemed even scarier to me was how quickly it got dropped. From one day to the next people stopped talking and went on with their lives. I had a friend who immediately went back to planning her upcoming weekend outfits and it felt strange to me. Yes, it is a bad idea to let things consume you. It won’t help anyone for you to sit in your room for months crying about the tragic world we live in. But it’s okay to pause for more than a day. It’s okay to feel for the families who lost someone important to them. For them, it’s definitely not just one day. For them, it’s forever. It sounds strange to take this angle, but I think we need to stop bouncing back. We need to do more than retweet Rihanna or post a “Pray for Las Vegas” picture on Instagram. Terrible things will keep happening and we need to do something about it. Go on and live your life, and don’t be afraid to get out of bed each morning. But don’t be oblivious. Continue to look for ways to help, talk to people, read more. Don’t drop Puerto Rico because Vegas happened and don’t forget about Vegas when the next thing comes around. Human beings are amazing and we have the capacity to care for more than one thing at a time, for a very long time. Just because CNN stopped reporting 24/7 on one event, doesn’t mean that it’s not still there.