"An American-born man who'd pledged allegiance to ISIS gunned down 49 people early Sunday at a gay nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the nation's worst terror attack since 9/11, authorities said," CNN
The worst mass shooting in U.S. history occurred on our soil on June 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. This devastating event shocked the nation and brought severe concern to the eyes of millions. Our world is at war, our people are attacking one another, and it is time for peace to be greater than conflict.
What happened in Orlando was tragic, unexpected, and unnecessary. Violence is never the answer: never has been and never will be. The power of peace and the unity of togetherness will prevail over all forms of evil and hate. These negative and violent acts of hate and disgust targeted at certain groups of people, let alone at any people at all, are truly unfathomable and downright wrong.
In the Orlando shooting, there were 49 innocent people celebrating life at the moment they lost theirs. There was one man who felt it was his right to take away their life. He took lives that night, altered families at that moment, and although he lost his own, what occurred can never be undone. But as people of America, as citizens who live on grounds founded on faith and freedom, and as humans of the universe it is our duty to look towards peace instead of hate. Hate solves nothing. Violence causes pain. It is peace that has the potential to bring the world to a better, more unified place.
As a daughter, a sister, a friend, a student, and a citizen, I am turning to peace. I encourage you to look for peace from this brutal crime to overcome the damage that has been done. We need to unify our country and remain strong in the worst of times, and we must look for light where there is currently only darkness. I urge you to move forward from this day on with a positive mind, a healthy soul, and a forgiving heart. After all, all we truly have in this world is each other.
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
