By the time I post this, a moment of silence will have been observed for the victims of the shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary one week ago today.
Like anyone else hearing the news last week, I was horrified. I felt sick imagining the terror every parent must have experienced, not knowing if their child was okay. The horror for those who found out their child was among those who did not make it out.
And then I felt disgust.
I felt disgust as I watched my social media feeds light up with arguing over guns and health care. I watched brands and individuals in brand mode go right back to self-promotion, while the death toll was still rolling in.
It’s not that I think everyone must stand vigil the moment tragedy strikes. We have to move forward. That’s life.
But…I couldn’t help but cringe hearing people respond to what happened with hateful arguing. I watched people tell others they “shouldn’t exist” or “should be shot” when they disagreed on guns/healthcare/too much violence in entertainment
I couldn’t help but cringe as I watched tweets acknowledging the loss one minute, and literally pimping a product the next.
I couldn’t help but think that we’ve all grown so accustomed to being heard that sometimes we forget that sometimes we need to just shut up.
Are we such a narcissistic culture that we can’t take a moment to refrain? To refrain from snarky commentary? To refrain from hateful speech? To refrain from self-promotion?
Sometimes, it’s not about us. It’s not about our views or opinions or products.
Some moments in life merit stepping back. Staying silent. Pondering.
And eventually, we go back to our lives.
Hopefully, having learned something.
Learning to have intelligent exchanges, heated perhaps, but not hateful. Learning not everything is open to be mocked or joked about. Learning that everything isn’t about us.
There’s a time to speak. And a time to be silent.
cheeqz
cheeqz
cheeqz
cheeqz
cheeqz
cheeqz
cheeqz
cheeqz
cheeqz
cheeqz
Absolutely right. I stopped looking at my FB feeds for a while specifically for that reason. It wasn’t the time or place. I didn’t mind the posts expressing shock, sorrow or tears…it was the rest of the garbage. Thanks…and you’re right about the debates, too. Ugh!
Same here. At some point, I had to just shut it down.
Very well said! I hope my post didn’t come off as callous in any way. I totally agree with everything you said.
Not at all, Nina. I linked to your post because I appreciated what you said. It was honest, and the reality of things. When something horrid like this happens, we want to show respect, but our lives don’t freeze. It’s an odd juxtaposition – the everyday against the tragedy.
Thank you, Amber!
This is why I avoided most of social media (and media in general) after the tragedy. The last time something like this happened, I was glued to the TV and cable news. It drove me nuts. I was stressed to the limit. I’ve since learned to balance my compassion for people with my own mental health. I know very little details about the disaster in Newtown. I know enough to do what I can to support the families. The details I don’t know will not allow me to do my part any better, but will only cause me to go insane a little faster.
As to the issue you brought up, I agree completely. There is indeed a time to speak and a time to keep silent. Politicizing human tragedies is deplorable, and while I wish those who do it no harm, they should be ashamed of themselves for allowing divisiveness and partisanship to make them so callous. These things are sad and often there is little we can do to prevent or fix them, but that should never cause us to become heartless or cold. The balance (and this is difficult) is to feel for our fellow human beings and support them in whatever way we can, while also protecting ourselves and our own families. Sometimes, the only way we can do that is by simply turning off the news.
I don’t have cable here, which is good. I’m an information junkie, so I can easily become glued to the TV when something like this happens. At least with the internet it seems easier for me to walk away before becoming over saturated.
Every time something like this happens, it spawns arguments over gun control, and people get so hateful and ugly about it that you wonder if they are just USING the tragedy to their own benefit. People should have a little respect for the victims instead of threatening each other.
I do think that there are people that use tragedy to push their own agenda. And I think there are sincere people who want to discuss what happened and make changes so it doesn’t happen again. I have no issue with intelligent discourse, but there’s something to doing it in a way that shows respect.
And I think sometimes that means taking a beat and staying quiet.
Thank you! A well-known blogger that I follow was back to posting about how fabulous a certain brand of car is ONE DAY after Sandy Hook. I was appalled. And yet I don’t have the guts to say anything to her. What’s the point? Thank you for saying what needed to be said.
Beautiful.
We need common sense. Someone out there has a solution for the Gordian problem of gun control. We have to balance individual rights and public safety. Right now we need not a moment of silence but a month of silence when we can think about the problem and maybe, just maybe someone will arrive at a point where a reasonable mean can be found.
Well said. Thank you.
So right. Silence and reflection.