Too Young to Die

Early Sunday Morning on the 12^th of June 49 people were gunned down in cold blood and another 53 were injured by bullets from two high capacity, quick loading weapons. The shooter, an American born 29 year old, called 9-1-1 during his three hour rampage at a gay night club to pledge his allegiance to ISIS. I was still awake when the news started coming in on TV and the coverage was nonstop the rest of the weekend and next few days. 

By Sunday afternoon I wanted to talk to someone about it and I went to Facebook where I was surprised that no one in my circle of friends and family mentioned the shootings except for three people who often post their support for the NRA and Trump. No posted banners of solitary like with the massacre in Paris, no prayer chains appeared in my Facebook feed. Not one line of sympathy, just the three who were hyperbolic about the fact that the news outlets were falsely claiming that what happened in Orlando was the “biggest mass murder in U.S. history” when the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, where 150 died, was worse. But as I read through their comments it became clear that my Facebook contacts didn’t care about accuracy in reporting. They were holding up Wounded Knee as an example of what happens when you take guns away from people. I didn’t add anything to their exchange but I did post a ‘support Orlando banner’ on my page and left. I was upset that even before all the bodies had been processed from the crime scene, even before people knew if their loved ones were alive or dead the gun debate was rearing its ugly head. Where was the compassion I expected? Sometimes it’s best not to know how your family and friends think. 

By Monday morning Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were sniping at each other over how we should be handling terrorism and I was frustrated that I didn’t have a sounding board for expressing my feelings when I found myself sitting in a dealership’s waiting room with seven or eight others. It’s a service center I’ve been in often over the past 15 years and have known it to usually be filled with friendly and chatty people from the surrounding rural towns and farms. Not this time. No one said a single word the entire hour I was there. Some were playing on their cell phones and some, like me, were watching the TV coverage from Orlando. And while I haven’t cried in many months when a big, burly black guy came into the waiting room wearing a t-shirt with the word, “Orlando” written on the front I could feel a full-on cry-fest coming on and I had to work hard at talking myself down to keep that from happening. It was like I’d finally found someone else who cared, someone else who needed to make a statement. I wanted to say something to t-shirt man as I left but “nice shirt” was all I could come up with and that sounded trite so I said nothing.

I went home and hopped on an internet message board where I knew claws would be out as the massacre was hotly debated by everyone from flag kissers to secessionists, from far left Democrats to far right Republicans, from pot stirring trolls to thoughtful, deep thinkers. It sucks to live alone when you want to have a conversation and message boards have to substitute for human contact. But at least I had my say with some people agreeing with me and others calling me nasty names like “libtard” for caring about a “bunch of fags.” It’s a Wild West kind of place and I expected what I got. 

Monday night reports were coming in that the shooter---in a strange paradox---had his profile up on  dating websites for gays, had three gay meet-up apps on his cell phone and guys who had had exchanges with him over the past couple of years had turned their cell phones over to the FBI. A drag queen said the shooter had been his friend and his x-wife said she didn’t know if he was gay but he liked to hang out at their clubs. Conspiracy theorists had already spun the whole mass killing as a “false flag” that never happened, and Trump was using his dog whistle on conspiracy nuts by “suggesting” that President Obama was on the side of the terrorists, adding that he should resign if he won’t use the words, ‘radical Islam terrorism.’ And here we thought Trump had dropped his Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim Birther crusade. 

In the meanwhile the Go-Fund-Me that was set up to help the victim’s families pay for funerals and medical bills had collected over three million dollars by Tuesday morning proving that people actually do care when others die too young. And maybe this bleeding heart liberal will be able to sleep tonight knowing it's true, what the creator of ‘Hamilton’ (the play) wrote in the sonnet that was read at the Tony Awards on Sunday:

"We lived through times when hate and fear seemed stronger;
We rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside."
©

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For a searing editorial about the obstructionism in Congress and gun control, watch comedian Samantha Bee here. Spoiler Alert: There is strong, graphic language that might offend some. 

To watch the president's speech about the tragedy in Orlando and fighting terrorism (including his response to Trump's ridiculous taunting) watch here.

Another good editorial was given by Seth Meyer and can be watched here.