I had shut off my email. I hadn’t looked at social media yesterday morning, since I was in the final day of a great weekend dirt biking with my daughter. As she and I were leaving the dirt bike park and turned on NPR, we heard about the shooting in Orlando.
All I really wanted to do was shut it off. I didn’t want the down at the end of a great weekend. Orlando is one of my favorite cities. I have many friends there. But the main reason is because these types of events make me feel completely, utterly helpless.
Why? Because of the truth of this tweet:
In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) June 19, 2015
If we, as a nation, don’t make changes to our laws or our society after the deaths of children, does anyone think that the deaths of fifty marginalized people will change anything?
I fear that we’ll have the usual. There will be a flurry of social media activity. A hashtag will be born. Lots of us will use it. Politicians will say some things. Celebrities will say other things. There will be outrage all around. Then we’ll all go back to our lives, and nothing will change.
And I’ll go to sleep wondering when it will be my child.