As a new Buddhist, I attended Buffalo's prayer vigil for Orlando on Monday in high hopes of actual prayer happening. What I got was an "official non-political rally" turned political.
The shooting that happened Sunday in Orlando, FL by a homophobic, confused homosexual was horrific. We've all seen the texts of a young man's last words to his mother, the photos of the victims, and the tragic news that this is the worst criminal mass shooting by a single person in U.S. history. There needs to be prayer and action after this happens. And yet, I saw neither at Buffalo's Prayer Vigil held by the Pride Center of WNY. I walked up to a huge crowd of people covering our William McKinley memorial and the entire Niagara Square. I could not have been more proud of Buffalo showing up to support the victims that will not ever know we congregated. It was a spirit of togetherness and solidarity I have come to appreciate about "The City of Good Neighbors." Rainbow and transgender flags flew high, candles were in hand, and people braved the cold to pay their respects to the lives lost. It could have been a beautiful moment for our city. But it was more about having the who's who speaking and showing our elected officials what they mean to our city than showing love to the fallen.
I will not bash the entire gathering. It is always heart-warming to hear that the people you hold accountable in your government cares about the same issues you do. There were a few mentions of how joyous the kick off of Pride Week was only two weeks earlier, in the same spot as the prayer vigil; and how upsetting it was to have to live in a time where those joys had been wiped out by a madman with a gun. There was an opening prayer and a closing moment of silence, followed by The Buffalo Gay Men's Chorus singing a song.
It was needed. It was necessary. But I felt like it could have been so much more.
It was a gay rights rally rather than a human lives loss mourning. It was a gun control speech, rather than a time to pray for the victims and their families. It was a time for government officials and politicians to show their community they meant business, rather than a time for people actually invested in this to speak of their sorrows.
I am proud to be in a city where hate crime is rather unheard of, and we celebrate diversity in wonderful ways. We recently just had the first transgender surgery in Buffalo. But they did not ask her to say a few words. They asked one leader in the LGBTQ community to speak, and a few pastors who were gay to say a few words. But it was not enough. We cannot say a massacre like this will not happen again, even though they tried to. All we can do at this point is pray. Pray for the legislators to pass the bill stopping people on the FBI's watch list from legally obtaining a firearm. We can pray for the city of Orlando as they deal with loss and the struggle to mourn their friends, co-workers, and family members. We can pray for the victims, who were completely helpless in those few moments before their death. And we can pray for our collective conscious to learn from this and finally do better.
