We are a world at war. For far too long we have spilled blood over your land in the name of God and progress. We have become a world torn apart at the seams by hatred, greed, fear, and misunderstanding. I feel sick knowing that this beautiful gift we were given has become the sight of such torture and torment. The most recent tragedy took the lives of fifty of your children. Fifty more graves will be dug into your landscape. Fifty were lost and the whole Earth weeps in solidarity. Now your skies are filled with the familiar sounds of “that could’ve been me” and “why did it have to be my child”.

This turmoil is nothing new, though. Since the beginning of time men and women have killed one another. The first recorded incident of this is in the book of Genesis when Cain, out of jealousy, kills his brother Abel. In the twelfth century, we burned heretics at the stake and beheaded them because we feared their belief in something different. We have fought war after war after war ad nauseam for our share of your soil and your most precious resources. And for what really? So one person can be the victor and others leave defeated and feeling hopeless? I refuse to live in this type of world anymore.

I am completely ashamed and disgusted to be a member of what is supposed to be a civilized society. If we are so civilized why are our news reports filled with violence and hatred? I just don’t understand anymore and so I beg you, please take back your land. Help us learn to heal your battle-scarred wilderness and war-torn soil. I join with those whose tears have filled your river beds and are overflowing your vast oceans. This world has become something of which I am constantly afraid. I fear for the life my children will have when they leave my home and enter into the violence which surrounds them daily.

As a society, we mourn the loss of our innocence. We mourn the loss of our safety and the thought that times like these were behind us. I guess we were wrong and that it is time to start preparing for a world in which nothing is certain anymore but uncertainty. As a small child, I dreamed of being the generation that ended the sadness and hurt in the world. I’m so sorry that I failed you. I wanted so much better than this. I prayed for so much better for you than this. I suppose world peace only really exists in the naiveté of a child’s wildest imagination. And how sad is that really? When did we stop believing we could change what fate had in store?

I miss the belief that a smile could replace a frown and that all the world really did need was a little more compassion. I want more for you, planet Earth. I want more for my children. And I want more for me. I don’t want to live in fear anymore. I want to live in a world filled with laughter, love, and kindness. Martin Luther King Jr said it best when he said “darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Today we join you in mourning the loss of so many lives and we pray for Orlando. We pray for the world. And we pray for peace.