You don't have to be an avid news watcher to know what's been going on in our country recently. All it takes is logging onto Facebook and seeing that your friends in Orlando are marking themselves in safe. In recent media so much tragedy has struck the United States, taking the lives of innocent victims and not leaving anyone unaffected. Whether or not you knew someone who was hurt or injured in the recent attacks this news touched every corner of our country as TVs, cell phones, and laptops filled every house with the reports.
In the past week there's been so much hatred and hurt in the media. From the Stanford rape trial to Christina Grimmie to the Orland shooting, one of the worst mass shootings in the history of our country, it's getting impossible to turn on any electronic without being reminded of these tragedies. To make matters worse, our country is in the middle of a major presidential election where our candidates are a criminal and a racist.
The Stanford rape case hit news first this past week. Brock Turner, a freshman at Stanford, raped an unnamed victim, who at the time of the assault was both intoxicated and unconscious. Turner faced a maximum of 14 years in state prison but Judge Aaron Persky ended up giving Turner six months in jail with the possibility of getting out in three on parole. This story went viral, especially after the victim released her statement as a letter she read during the trial to Turner. One would would expect a much worse punishment for this type of assault but the judge said it would negatively impact Turner and his swimming career. When did sports become more important than someone's life?
The Stanford rape case also brought out some interesting information most of the public didn't know about Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton. In 1975 Clinton was selected to represent a child rapist in court and the case ended with a plea bargain for the rapist where the judge reduced the five-year sentence to four years probation and a year in jail. It is understood that Clinton was appointed to this trial but it's hard to imagine someone who defended a rapist becoming our president, especially after reading the letter that the Stanford rape victim wrote to her attacker.
Around 10:30pm Christina Grimmie was shot and killed after finishing a concert in Florida. Grimmie was meeting fans and signing autographs when she was shot by Kevin James Loibl, a resident of St. Petersburg, Florida. There is so far no known motive or reason to believe the gunman even knew Grimmie personally, however it is believed that Loibl planned to travel home to St. Petersburg after shooting Grimmie in Orlando, his only purpose for making the two hour drive. Christina was loved by everyone who knew her; her talent and passion was indescribable and it's so unbelievably heartbreaking that while she was signing autographs she was killed. There is nothing more innocent than giving your fans attention and thanking them for their support and somebody decided to take that away from her. Christina's death will greatly impact all who knew her, those who looked up to her and respected her, her fans, and the entire music industry.
Two days later, tragedy strikes Orlando, Florida again as a 29-year-old man opened fire at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. He killed 49 people and injured an additional 53. The shooter who pledged his allegiance to ISIS, had previously been investigated by the FBI for ties to an American suicide bomber. The media spread news of this shooting along with heartbreaking stories, including one of a boy inside the nightclub who texted his mother that he was going to die, right before the gunman came in the bathroom and killed him. Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Nominee, used this shooting as a chance to remind Americans why he believes there should be a temporary ban on Muslim migration to the United States. Donald Trump, the potential leader of our country, is judging all Muslim's on the actions of one man. Just because he was a Muslim does not mean he represents all Muslims. He was a terrorist and we should be referring to him as such, instead of as a Muslim. We know terrorists are bad but by using the word Muslim we are attaching a negative connotation to that word because of what the shooter did. By attaching this negative view, all Muslims are being faced with negativity, hatred, and discrimination all because a terrorist happened to share the same religion as them.
From the 1880s until around 1920 immigrants were flooding into the United States in pursue of the American Dream. Our nation is built on the idea of freedom and equality for all. How are we achieving that if our own citizens can't go out to a club, perform a concert, or attend a party without their lives being in danger? How can we say "America the beautiful" when our country has become so ugly, filled with hatred and violence? How can we ask our citizens to trust us when all the media reports on is violent crime after hate crime after innocent lives being harmed? Our own citizens don't feel safe in our country. The immigrants who have travelled to America do not feel safe here. We will not a country of equality if people are murdered because of who they love. We are not a country of equality if someone's gets a shorter prison sentence for rape than the normal attacker because they are an athlete. We are not a country of freedom if a music artist cannot perform for fans without being killed. We are not a country to be proud of when you can't turn on the TV or your phone without hearing about the latest bombing.
When I first heard that the Orlando shooting was one of the biggest mass shootings the United States had experienced, I was surprised to find out only fifty people were killed. ONLY. We have become so desensitized to the shootings, bombings, and other violence we hear about that if hundreds aren't dying, it doesn't seem like it's that bad. I pray for every family who lost a loved one or is awaiting a loved one's medical diagnosis after being injured in the shooting. But there is no reason why it should be "Only fifty?" because it never should've been fifty or ten or five or even one. Not one person in Orlando, or anywhere else in the United States, should have been shot because of their sexual identity, or for any other reason.
We should be able to walk around our streets, our cities, and our country without worrying for our safety. We shouldn't have to question who is going to pull a gun out and shoot up a place for no reason. It seems as though gun attacks have hit almost every place imaginable from schools to churches to clubs, when will it end?
So, I ask you: What happened America? What happened to our country to take it from the place where everyone believed dreams came true? What happened to the thousands of people who wanted to move to America? What happened to being a community who loves and accepts each other? When did we decide violence and hate was okay? When did the media start giving more attention to the killers than to the victims? Why do I know the name and swimming times of the rapist but not the name or college major of his victim? Why does this sort of thing happen so frequently that we are so desensitized to it that we say "only fifty people died"?
We may not be able to pinpoint what happened or when it happened that caused these issues in our country but all we can do now is work together as a nation to heal from our losses and move forward, improving ourselves and our country as we do so.
