Feeling the tentacles of overwhelm slowly creeping around me, I fired off a quick text message to a dear friend of mine.
Holy what?! Another mass shooting? 58 souls gone? Over 500 wounded?
Disbelief. I was in utter disbelief. Why, why, why would someone be driven to do such a heinous act…again?
Returning to my phone, I unlocked many messages of prayer, healing, and other feelings of repudiation streaming through Facebook and Twitter…and then there were the cries for more/less/amended gun control, more security, and metal detectors at every building entrance.
One word: Stop!
Just stop.
Can we just take a moment to mourn with Las Vegas? Can we just take another moment to support our brothers and sisters in America’s Playground? Can we take a moment to be authentically introspective about our society and ourselves?
If we could adequately prevent this from happening through political means alone we probably would have done so by now? But we haven’t.
Past presidents have pushed gun control.
Past presidents have worked to roll back gun control measures.
Maybe it’s more than the guns. Maybe it’s more than the laws. Maybe its something within ourselves and our society that needs readjustment.
Whatever the solution, I know it won’t be easy, but it will take all of us to figure it out. For the time being, how about we aim to be there for our fellow Americans in prayer/positive thoughts/whatever you believe in and leave the politics for another day.
