Three weeks ago, a man filled with hate and anger open fired on a group of innocent souls worshipping in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Eleven were killed, and several injured. Shortly after the news broke about the events, celebrities, politicians, and average people took to social media condemning the actions of this cruel man and calling for reform to gun laws. This created an even larger issue as the failure to allow society to properly express their grief and pick up the pieces from such a gut-wrenching event, caused people began to engage in a polarizing debate on the current gun laws. This was not what victims’ families needed to hear, especially minutes after losing their loved ones.
Image Credit: The Verge
We can discuss the facts and figures of gun violence in the United States and the alarming trends until we are completely exhausted, but there are many individuals who will never be convinced. The statistics can be manipulated to fit any agenda, but something needs to be done. It is clear to see that this is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in the United States, and the easy access to firearms has perpetuated this. The Washington Post reported that there have been 158 shootings this year alone which resulted in the loss of four or more lives.
Regardless of what you believe, one thing is certain; these acts of violence are motivated by hate, and we cannot continue to let hate divide us. Under the current administration, there has been a great deal of insensitive, crass, and hateful rhetoric spewing from the leader of our nation. This language and his inability to recognize the issues of anti-Semitism and the rise of white nationalism has made it socially acceptable to openly hate and threaten groups of people who are different from us. In our American society, there is no one race, gender, ethnicity, or religion. We are a beautiful combination of several different cultures and backgrounds, each unique and worthy of dignity and respect. What surprises me the most is that people are attempting to find answers when there is no answer. What Bowers did was an act of hate, plain and simple. He needed no motivation, reason, or justification. He hated people of the Jewish faith and he killed them.
What makes this situation all the more pressing was the recent shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, where a man who harbored anger in his heart also took the lives of 12 others and his own. As California governor-elect Gavin Newsom said, “we cannot allow this to become normalized.” In America, we have gone numb to the violence, relying on politicians and celebrities to influence our ideas, tell us how to feel, and make changes. We cannot continue to let our leaders do nothing. To continue to allow people to lose their lives in acts of senseless hate and violence is not what our nation was founded on, or what God intended for us to do. We are required to love and respect our neighbors, regardless of how different we are. We have so much to learn from the people around us: their culture, religion, history, and experiences. We need to stand together against hate and violence. We cannot be silent when the loss of human life is on the line.
Catherine