By now, most of you are probably well aware of the mass shooting that took place at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. This is another senseless act of terrorism, which has a connection to ISIS – at least in the sense that the killer called in prior to the attack to support solidarity with their cause. As is so often the case, particularly right around the time of these tragedies, we are not always clear on the killer’s motives. The identification with ISIS may have simply been an excuse provided to carry out a horrific act – to pass the blame – so the killer might somehow feel justified in their barbaric act, a convoluted way of connecting to a bigger hatred. Regardless, it is very sad.
This is not the first mass shooting, and unfortunately, it won’t be the last. It is, however, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
I am 33 years old. This type of news, albeit devastatingly shocking, has almost become routine. I remember Jonesboro and Columbine and countless others that have happened, including the awful tragedy in Sandy Hook. I remember Virginia Tech, Charleston and Aurora. I remember being scared of the “Trench-coat” mafia. I remember being on edge for many days after each of these acts of violence.
Quite often, and particularly after each mass shooting, I think about the conversation I would like to have with the next mass shooter. Yes, I said the NEXT person who is thinking about killing people in droves. Growing up, I always had this thought, this idea … what if I could talk to the next person who is contemplating going this route? Could I help to trigger a change in their mindset? Ever since I became aware of these types of hurtful attacks, I knew there would always be another. And if I could just reach out, maybe, just maybe, there might be a mental mind shift that might stop it before it happened.
To the next person thinking of doing such a thing, “can you imagine a different way to deal with how you feel, and what you believe, that wouldn’t cause such irreversible hurt, heartache and pain? It really doesn’t have to be this way.”
I know that mental health issues very often play a role. And of course, one could also debate whether a particular person is being led by some sort of extremism.
But what if it were possible to have that discussion with the next shooter, shouldn’t we have it? Shouldn’t we at least try to connect? To help another person pursue light rather than foster a greater darkness?
What if we could talk to them, out of love, and explain the deep sadness that this brings, not just to the general public, but the ones directly attacked. More often than not, the people that have been injured or killed are truly innocent bystanders. And more often than not, the next killer will be doing this to make a bigger statement.
Religious extremism or not, mentally ill or not, we are all uniquely connected at our core. We have a shared experience. We are born, we live and then we die.
That is a very humbling statement to admit to. But it is something that brings us together more than any other animal species in this world. We all know that we will die someday. No other living organism is able to contemplate this reality. Yet, this is something that every single one of us has in common. We can connect via this truth. There are over 7 billion people that have this common trait. So stripped away to our core, we are the same. And, I believe, if we can talk to each other as people living the same human experience, we can be the change we want.
One might argue that there will always be mentally ill people that do this, and they might be right. But what if one conversation could inspire someone to make a different choice, to head in a better direction? What if it were possible to bring a new sense of reality into another life, one that produced hope, and compassion, and love?
At this point in 2016, with the US presidential election coming up, and in the UK the divisions surrounding Brexit, and in so many other parts of the world, we are all extremely divided on issues of politics, race, religion, hell even sports. But those are all mental constructs we have created in order to be part of different tribes. Sadly, these constructs have done even further damage, causing serious divisions amongst us.
I don’t care about your religion, race or creed. I honestly don’t. At the very core of our being, we share a very common thread. And if you and I could put down our mental constructs for a few minutes, and just connect, we might be able to make some progress. Share, love and listen.
My daughter is about to turn 4 years old. I saw her playing this morning with her friend that lives next door. Different backgrounds. Different stories. Different hair. Different lifestyles. Different parents. Different. Except at their core. These 2 sweet little girls did not know what was going on in Orlando today. They just played with each other. Sharing, playing, swimming, laughing, eating and drinking.
Maybe it is time in our world to be more like our children. Let’s start with what they do best – accepting others just as they are and talking and playing.
There is not very much most of us can do right now for the victims and families involved in this tragedy. We can continue to think about them, pray, send good thoughts and donate blood if you are in the area.
But here is something we can do right now. Play with your kids. Talk with your kids (not just to them). Accept them, love them, enjoy the time you spend with them. If you don’t have kids, enjoy time with friends and family. The love and support we get from friends and family is what truly keeps this world moving forward in a positive direction.
Let’s put down our phones. Let’s turn off our computers and TV. Let’s take our earbuds out. And create real human to human connections. Smile at the person you walk past. Say hello to the person at the grocery store.
This won’t be the last shooting. How many more must we endure? Who knows. But we can give a smile to a stranger. Don’t underestimate the power of an unexpected smile … or act of kindness. This could change that person’s whole day. And who knows, that seemingly little change, might make a huge difference in their life … giving hope to brighten a life.
We will all be subjected to a lot of media coverage about this event, and be reminded of other similar events, and how there are hateful groups of people out there. We will hear partisan comments about how this event supports such-and-such a presidential candidate, or how gun ownership is the answer, or how gun control is the answer, or that we need to make sure that we avoid going to dangerous locations (as if that were really even possible). All sorts of ‘traditional’ solutions.
Why don’t we instead do something not so traditional? Let’s choose to make this a time of personal reflection and commitment to live a life that fosters hope. One where we aren’t suspicious of everyone, but are kind to those around us.
Who knows, you may be the one who gets to talk to that prospective future mass shooter and steer them away from a tragedy. Your act of kindness could make all the difference. Sure, you may not find out until sometime in eternity that you made the difference – but what a great mission in life – a person who builds bridges between people, who accepts, who connects, who loves. That is the power within each of us.
– Jake Carney
Jake is the founder and CEO of The Alternative Daily. You can follow him on twitter here @JakeSurfs
How many Americans have to die before we go get them? As soon as sisi said we did it go get them…
That’s why Barry wants our guns,so we can’t defend ourselves against his Muslim invaders.
This message was not about anything political. It’s about each one of us and what WE can do.
DOC, this is about you. Not who is going to get who. This is a message of love and what each and every one of us can do right now. I hope you see through to this.
These mass shootings are almost always done by victims of secret government mind control programs and there is agenda behind them. That would be the complete disarming of the American people. Once that is accomplished the slaughter will really begin. You will either submit to being a complete slave or you will being carted off to one of their camps for either “re-education” or elimination. If this sounds familiar, it should. It is the same program that’s been followed by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and many others. The only difference is that modern technology is now used and delivered via drugs, hypnosis, electroshock, silent subliminal technology that delivers voice commands silently and directly to the brain at a distance called “voice to skull” and many other technologies that have been developed in secret with your tax dollars to be used against you and your fellow citizens. Many of these false flag events also have a second agenda which is divide and conquer. So here we have an attack on gays by supposedly Muslim extremists. They are pitting race against race, religion against religion, etc., etc., while at the same time constantly pushing extreme social change through the media, entertainment industry and bought and paid for politicians. There is a war going on. Not the phony contrived war against IsIs. Its a war against you the individual citizen and its designed to break you down to comply with all manner of things you would otherwise oppose. Those that simply refuse to comply no matter what will be eliminated. At least that is the plan and you can look for an ever increasing amount of these type of incidents as time grows short to pull the noose so tight there can be no escape. Time is growing short because there is also an increasing awareness of the public to what is really going on. They say history repeats itself and we are living in another cycle of the “times that try men’s (and women’s) souls”!
Beautifully written. Lets not miss Jakes point. No violence is what he is saying. Educate your kids hate breeds hate love breeds love. If you have so much power to do wrong imagine how much more power you have to do good.
Very good article Jake. How can people read it and then say stuff that was shared above? They missed ur whole point. May we all strive to speak the truth in love to one another.
Beautiful thoughts but reality is not beautiful. Yes, thousands of us bring our children up with love and respect, they happily play and work in diverse areas but there are many other thousands who bring their children up in a culture of hate and religious madness. It’s been going on as long as man has walked the earth. We all know a redneck or two and no matter how you try to talk to them of love and understanding they hold onto their hate and try to force their world onto everyone else. History is full of reports of man’s injustice to his fellow man and as long as money and religion hold the power it will keep happening. Many more innocents will be sacrificed. Hold onto your dreams and keep spreading your beliefs, someone, somewhere will hear.
Apparently you have never really been around or worked with the mentally ill or religious fanatics. I have, and if they are at the stage of contemplating doing harm to others, they are way beyond talking to by lay people.
The psychotics (these are the really dangerous ones) are incapable of hearing anything other than what they selectively want to hear and the only way to keep them from harming others is to remove them from society which is something that our current psyc/legal system renders extremely difficult to accomplish (case in point, the Sandyhook school shooter).
As for the religious fanatics, the time to talk to them is when they are still children which is how
Islam indoctrinates them so by the time they are adults the only way you’re going to change their minds is with a bullet to the head (ask the Israelis about the Palestinian extremists in their midst and how
they educate their children).
The upshot here is if you are willing to talk to an Islamist extremist bent on terrorism you will be lucky
to leave with your head still attached to your body.
Almost all mass shootings and terrorist events are, in fact, historically False-Flag events perpetrated by by factions of Government, with the purpose of manipulating the public opinion by creating fear for the purpose of taking rights away from the masses and gaining more power for said Government or faction thereof. The concept is called the “Hegelian Dialectic” and has been around since the Roman Empire.
Don`t believe me, do your own research! PLEASE.
“Sandyhook” was a HOAX! It was a drill, a practice run. No one died and no one was shot, it was carried out by actors that are referred to as Crisis Actors. Same thing with the Boston Marathon Bombing. It was all fake – False-Flag OPs.
Absolutely!!!!!
You may not care about their religion but them killers care about yours! They want you to convert to their sharia law. Look it up if you don’t know what sharia law is. It is their system of government in sharia law that they want you to accept and convert to. Unfortunately, this type of mentality, is crossing our borders daily, thanks to this administration, for allowing and enabling these terrorists to enter and invade our country. I say invade because it is not legal!This administration is running the whole system!
Looking at this from thousands of miles away……. no one has asked the question of WHY ???? If my country was invaded by foreign military, by hook or by crook I would definitely get mad and retaliate. I would get even. I think we ALL have to look at the big picture here… not just this latest “terror” effort, but with all of them. If ISIS is connected…. why ?? Think outside the square here.
I had to pinch myself while reading this article. It sounded as if I had written it with the thoughts I experienced earlier on Sunday, after listening to the news for hours. I couldn’t come up with something feasible or realistic to do, so I offered a (written) prayer and sent it out to hundreds of people. While prayer may not seem very realistic to some, it is my faith that makes it real for me. Many people say they will pray for something, but how many really do? The article was long, but I had to finish reading it because I wrote it (at least I did in my mind). I am thankful for the thoughts, feelings and sentiments in the article. They touched a spiritual part of me. I don’t do facebook, twitter or technical stuff, but I do do prayer. I will close with my prayer.
Lord Jesus, we come together at this time to lift up this prayer to Almighty and Eternal God, in the wake of the tragedy in Orlando, Florida. We pray that we would submit to the Power of God’s love, and not be led astray by the forces of hate and evil. We ask for God’s comfort to all those affected by this tragedy, and for the strength to realize where our hope and our faith lies.
O Lord, lead and guide us through this time, and let us grow in your love to become better people. We pray for those who were fatal victims, for those who still struggle for healing, and for the families, friends and constituents affected by this evil act. We also pray that we won’t forget the healing power of forgiveness that you continue to give to those who have repentance, and that you want us to give also.
We trust in you, O God, and seek to receive the peace, the guidance, and the direction that only you can give, to bring us through this, and all the other trials that this life presents to us. We thank you and continue to commit all that we have to you. In the name of your Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Maybe we should take the positive route and try to understand the root cause of the problem instead of combatting and fighting against it.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Obviously, what we have tried so far has not worked. Try association to achieve negotiation, not condemnation to receive disintegration. When two sides don’t agree, shouldn’t fighting (especially kjilling) be the last resort? Is that where we are now?
Jake, this is beautiful, but it is very much a product of your own, western, judeo-christian influenced culture. I believe there is truth to the notion, as Friends teach, that every human has the light inside of them, and because of that we must treat them accordingly. Tolerance is a lovely concept, but do not ask us to tolerate intolerance, or the intolerable.
The people here who make negative-sounding comments have not missed your point. They have simply seen beyond the idea that everyone has that light, to the fact that some people do all they can to crush and snuff out that light in their own soul, and in the souls of their own children. Reality is, not all little girls laugh and swim and play. In fact, many young children are forced to memorize the quran and beaten (hard enough to break bones at times) if they make a mistake in their recitations. Little girls as young as twice your daughters age are married off to men old enough to be their grandfathers. These things do not make for joyful, laughter-filled childhood days.
The Orlando shooter was a jihadist. News reports now say IS claimed responsibility. So we absolutely know his motives. Sad to say, Mohammed decreed that the punishment for being gay is death. That is why the shooter chose this target. He comes from a regio-political ideology that says it is not only right, but important to kill gays.
I wish someone sitting down to sing kumbaya with him would have changed his mind, but the fact is, it would ultimately have made no difference, except for him to scoff at you quietly for being such a weak fool to be duped so easily. Case in point, the San Bernardino jihadist was well-liked at work, and they even held a baby shower for the couple even though they never met the wife. That did not stop him from massacring those very same co-workers. The Tsarnaev’s were popular and had friends, but that did not stop them from blowing up strangers, including little kids.
Your ideas might stop a Dylan Klebold or a Dylan Roof, but it will not stop a jihadist.
Anyone who has done anything with special effects can tell you you can’t stage that kind of carnage in seconds. It would take HOURS to rig the fake blood and prosthetics.
You are an idiot,
That is fine, but if you sit down and be all positivity and love, but the person you sit down with wants to cut your head off, try to remember how much you associate and don’t condemnate as they are slowly hacking through your neck.
If a sociopathic home invader comes in your house at night, are you going to say, hey, I know you’re here to rape my wife and daughters while you force me to watch, but I want me and my family to live as we were. Let’s just sit down and have a cup of coffee at my kitchen table to see if we can stop disagreeing about that.
Yep, that oughta work.
The Muslim religion teaches that it is their fate and right to take over the World, they are not content with anything else and lets face it all over the World they are being allowed to carry out this quest. Of course I know nothing after all I am a woman who in their eyes only has the right to breathe through any man who might be my legal male guardian which as I’m 74 and long time widow will have to be my male dog. I’m just off to ask his permission to go to the shops.
And then watch them die at the hands of Muslims. Keep them in their own country, there are millions of Christians who need to be saved put them first.
The root cause is as simple as the fact that the Muslims honestly believe it is their job to kill all the disbelievers until the whole World is Muslim, they have told us that enough times.
What is not legal about the First Amendment, as in Freedom of Religion? That means all religions, not just Christianity and Judaism. It includes Buddhists, Muslims, Pagans, Catholics, Islamists and even Atheists. Freedom of Religion has no exceptions, regardless of how Trump wants to exclude Muslims, except for those who “pass” his point of view, such as the Muslim Mayor of London. This is not and never has been a Christian country. You want to live in a Christian country? Go to the UK. The United States is not run by any Church, regardless of how they spin it.
Get over yourself. The majority of home-grown terrorists have not been Muslim. Sandy Hook’s shooter was a Christian. The shooter in the SC church was a white Redneck Christian who wanted to start a race war. The shooter in the movie theater playing Batman Begins was white and Christian. This is not a Christian country, never has been, never will be.
Looks good on paper, but as long as the Social Engineers are alive and running us>>>>>>>>>>NOTHING is going to change!
Dig into 9/11 and you will find that it reeks of another false flag event, and that some rich Israelians got richer off the Twin Tower buildings they bought and fully insured just weeks before they went down, according to many worldwide experts in demolition, in a manner that had to be a planned demolition, not from being hit by a couple of airplanes. The same is said to be true of two other nearby buildings that went down the same day. It is also likely that members of the federal government knew it was going to happen before it did.
Perhaps you are the idiot, because they had plenty of time to plan and fake the hoax. The one world global government, aka the new world order, has controlled the lies and propaganda fed to the public for decades.
Looking on the bright side, millions of other people of various ethnic/racial groups do not become a mass shooter and are not likely to ever become one, though a good many of them are legal gun owners. Fact remains that it is the holder of the weapon that pulls the trigger – NOT the weapon itself.
Thank God for those sane gun owners because. as Lott’s research showed and it still holds true, as gun ownership goes up the crime rate goes down, and even has an umbrella effect of sending the criminals to areas of less guns to commit their crimes, which protects the ones in the area that don’t have a gun.
Which is why it is smart to steer clear of gun free zones, even grocery stores who advertise guns are unwelcome in their place of business.
Christians have their own training camps for children, but you don’t ear or read about them any more with all the conservative media in control.
9/11 was an inside job by Gw Bush and Cheney
couldn’t read your comments it was too long but your religious remarks made sure I didn’t finish your letter of lies
What you say is so sweet. But very silly we are dealing with people who want to kill us and will kill himself to prove his point.
Pstoffnhowlin You are on of the fiu tat has got ed right on the nose. Tho most of this braine dad believe the bull the news media AKA government mouth-pieces shuff’s down tare troth. Cause tat work’s for them just fine. So stay alert and do not believe any of tare shit.
One man kills 50 people and we kill one that is not good odds.
They are crossing the border illegally! That’s an invasion! To add to the illegal action, they want to kill us! They must hate gays more than jews, or maybe this particular time, it was more convenient to massacre gays at the club, as oppose to blowing up planes, or restaurants. Oh and by the way, THIS IS A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY AND FOUNDED BY CHRISTIANS! what this IS NOT, is a moslem country! But Obama is succeeding in fundamentally transforming America. BTW, the Uk is now 33% moslem. Thry are now in charge. There Is no more UK, as fsr as I am concerned. They have been invaded and taken over. Thanks to PC!! Happy??
It Is also NOT ABOUT RELIGION. It is about governance, SHARIA LAW! Stop using religion as an excuse. You may be fooling the progressives, not me!
I think its the opposite! You don’t hear the truth because the main stream media is in bed with the libersl progressives, aka democrats!
If you were to actually take a little time and read your history books, you would discover that our Founding Fathers were not Christian. They were Deists and Free Masons. They broke away from England because they did not want to be ruled by the English Church or throne. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams were all a part of the Free Masons. If you ever come to Alexandria, VA, try looking up the George Washington Masonic Temple. It’s a big building you can’t miss off the King Street Metro stop.
If you look at a map of Washington, D.C, you will notice the White House is at the bottom of a Pagan Pentacle. The Washington Monument stands at 6,666″ in height and 666″ width at the bottom of each side of the monument. Yes, churches are everywhere but this is not a Christian country.
There are more Pagan symbols in DC than any blind Christian would be able to imagine.
If you want to talk about crossing the border illegally, you had better have Native American Indian blood running through your veins because the Founding Fathers of this country invaded this country illegally and took it from the indigenous Native Americans that were already living here. Our ancestors invaded this country just as much as the people you are talking about.
MUSLIMS (Not Moslems) are not invading this country, By your definition, Mexicans are. Mexicans are not Muslims. We have more “Home-grown” terrorists than we do illegal Muslim immigrants. We are destroying ourselves from the inside.
Either way, from your own point of view, you are not acting very Christian if you love your Bible so much. What is the one major message your precious Savior teaches throughout the Bible? “Love Thy Neighbor.” Killing is a major Sin. Christians and Catholics are just as guilty as anyone else for mass Genocide throughout history. Look up the Medieval Renaissance, where Catholics and Christians killed Pagans and Muslims by the thousands.
When you can provide any concrete proof that Christianity is a loving religion, we can talk. Until then, worry about your petty life before you go and judge anyone who doesn’t believe the same thing you do.
These same people you mention were christians, swore by the bible, not the koran. They prayed to God, not Allah!
hate breeds hate. always. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
Did he tell Hitler that, he was there? What happen to you can PROTECT yourself from somebody trying to kill you.All the sweet talk sounds good until the bullets start flying.
hate breeds hate. always.
It is obvious that you get most of your mental programing from the Main Stream Media Propaganda Machine.
Almost ALL violent acts of terrorism are perpetrated by the Host Government to foster Fear, the concept is called “The Hegelian Dialectic” and has been used since Roman times, at least, for the purpose of draining the Freedoms of the Masses.
Perhaps you should become some what more educated….
How many people realize that the Empire State building was hit by a WW2 Bomber toward the end of the war? It did NOT collapse and the fire didn`t melt any steel!?
Dig into Oklahoma City under Clinton and you will find that Eric Holder, Jr. was already on the federal payroll prior to the OKC false flag and in the department of Justice and probably one of the major causes of it becoming the department of INjustice. The shadow government had been running the federal government long before Obama became a useful idiot of the one world global government, aka the new world orderl
Yes, many of the same ones showed up in the Joker theater shooting. One of the females in the Sandy Hook hoax also showed up in the Burns, Oregon situation posing as a camper who was afraid of the non violent protesters and lying about what they were doing.
Funny thing was it was all lies and propaganda, as none of the locals lifving in the area were afraid of any of the protesters being there and actually supported their being there.
Jake, friend, one cannot live with hatred for long because hatred destroys the soul of the one hating, but neither can one safely live among those who are filled with hatred of others.
Before we can preach to any other nation about their fallacies, we need to work on bringing this country back into living by the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Our condoning the murder of our innocent unborn babies is about as cruel and heinous an act as one can possibly think of. We need to repeal all laws making such acts as this legal and also abolish all laws and regulations where there is no victim, because there is no crime if there is not a victim.
Those Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule is all the laws we need to make us a good neighbor and a trusted friend. We do not need endless volumes of rules, laws and regulations as we have from the IRS, Obamacare, EPA, BLM, FDA, BATF and all the other alphabet soups of the federal government.
I don’t have to hate you to protect my family.
Again, you fail to see the bigger picture. No religion is completely innocent. All religions have their own radicals. Practice what you preach before you go judging others by their faith alone. Not even bothering to mention God and Allah are the same Deity, the same fairy tale is told by both religions. Wake up and see the 21st Century is here. We are not in the 12th Century.
Right now, at this moment, it is radical moslem jihad that is doing all the terrorism! Don’t justify jihad by saying no relgion is completely innocent. I am not judging, I am stating facts! Muslims are instructed in the koran to kill jews and infidels! When they commit jihad, they becone radical muslims! So you wake up and smell the coffee! You are trying to deceive readers with your statements. They are smarter than you and know thst what I am ssying is true! But maybe you approve of jihad, which is why you are protecting it??
It is government, shariah law, not religion!