It's not your thoughts and prayers that matter; It's your actions
As a writer, this is pretty hard for me to write. I don’t want your words. I don’t want your thoughts. I don’t want your prayers. I don’t want anything that makes you feel like you have contributed to the world being a better place when it hasn’t. I don’t want your empty gestures. I don’t want your platitudes, your fake tears, your feeling pity, sorrow or sadness. I don’t want another word said in regards to the next tragedy that we will face after that tragedy occurs.
I want your sorrow, sadness, compassionate outpouring, guilt, or whatever emotions are causing you to send your thoughts and prayers to this tragedy, to turn into action. For too long have we sat under the delusion that our thoughts and prayers matter to the people that we send them to. For too long have we allowed social media to bandwagon and create a sense of having done our part. For too long have we suffered these losses like those in a gladiator arena suffered the death of their favorite gladiator. As long as we pay lip service to our grief and express our sentiments to hashtagged words, we will continue to have these mass shootings.
It is time for us to rise up and not say enough is enough but demand that it is. No longer shall we accept do-nothing politicians. No longer shall we accept status-quo business practices. Starting now, we will require that people take responsible for themselves and the corporations that they run. We will demand that people will take responsibility for their brothers (in a figurative sense, for we are all brothers), we will demand more from ourselves.
Ever since “going postal” became a cultural thing, the U.S. and its citizens have done nothing but cry and then swept the tragedy, whatever it was, under the rug. It’s sad that a toddler killed her mom with a gun. It’s sad that an artist took his life with a gun. It’s sad that a man went in and killed 50 people and injured 50 more with a gun.
It’s sad that we condone death as a society and yet pay lip service to mourning it. We condone death with every execution, with every war and with every person who dies from malnourishment and disease because food and health care are too expensive. It’s sad that even when someone that we love as a society dies, we send our thoughts and prayers and do nothing to save the next person who might suffer from the same disease or mental disorder. It’s sad that we care more for how we look than what we can do to change things. It’s sad that not everyone actually wants to make the world better. Some people just want to complain and be seen in the same group as their friends, even when they don’t care a lick about what happened.
Maybe the saddest part is that we are too apathetic. We have learned helplessness. We have been stymied in our efforts to make a difference because they don’t make money. We have learned to fear other people so much that we refuse to stop and help because it may be a trap. We have learned that someone else will take care of the situation. We have learned that we can’t control what other people do and so we leave them alone. That is why we are in this predicament of greeting more gun deaths than any other nation in the world not currently involved in a war.
So keep sending your thoughts and prayers and keep watching the news for the next gunning down of America’s youth. Or stand up and say that you will not accept it. Stop thinking and praying and do something to make America great again. Go out and talk to your neighbors. Give your time to a social club that is diverse and start learning about the cultures that a part of what makes America great. Cut out the fear of gays, Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants undocumented or otherwise and learn what they have to bring to the table. Once you make the effort, you will find that your life is richer, and we will all be safer.
I want your sorrow, sadness, compassionate outpouring, guilt, or whatever emotions are causing you to send your thoughts and prayers to this tragedy, to turn into action. For too long have we sat under the delusion that our thoughts and prayers matter to the people that we send them to. For too long have we allowed social media to bandwagon and create a sense of having done our part. For too long have we suffered these losses like those in a gladiator arena suffered the death of their favorite gladiator. As long as we pay lip service to our grief and express our sentiments to hashtagged words, we will continue to have these mass shootings.
It is time for us to rise up and not say enough is enough but demand that it is. No longer shall we accept do-nothing politicians. No longer shall we accept status-quo business practices. Starting now, we will require that people take responsible for themselves and the corporations that they run. We will demand that people will take responsibility for their brothers (in a figurative sense, for we are all brothers), we will demand more from ourselves.
Ever since “going postal” became a cultural thing, the U.S. and its citizens have done nothing but cry and then swept the tragedy, whatever it was, under the rug. It’s sad that a toddler killed her mom with a gun. It’s sad that an artist took his life with a gun. It’s sad that a man went in and killed 50 people and injured 50 more with a gun.
It’s sad that we condone death as a society and yet pay lip service to mourning it. We condone death with every execution, with every war and with every person who dies from malnourishment and disease because food and health care are too expensive. It’s sad that even when someone that we love as a society dies, we send our thoughts and prayers and do nothing to save the next person who might suffer from the same disease or mental disorder. It’s sad that we care more for how we look than what we can do to change things. It’s sad that not everyone actually wants to make the world better. Some people just want to complain and be seen in the same group as their friends, even when they don’t care a lick about what happened.
Maybe the saddest part is that we are too apathetic. We have learned helplessness. We have been stymied in our efforts to make a difference because they don’t make money. We have learned to fear other people so much that we refuse to stop and help because it may be a trap. We have learned that someone else will take care of the situation. We have learned that we can’t control what other people do and so we leave them alone. That is why we are in this predicament of greeting more gun deaths than any other nation in the world not currently involved in a war.
So keep sending your thoughts and prayers and keep watching the news for the next gunning down of America’s youth. Or stand up and say that you will not accept it. Stop thinking and praying and do something to make America great again. Go out and talk to your neighbors. Give your time to a social club that is diverse and start learning about the cultures that a part of what makes America great. Cut out the fear of gays, Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants undocumented or otherwise and learn what they have to bring to the table. Once you make the effort, you will find that your life is richer, and we will all be safer.