Last weekend, a hateful man entered an LGBTQ club and killed five people before he was stopped by others in the club. While "only" five people died, it still reminds me a lot of the Pulse massacre here in Orlando. You look for words or ideas to make sense of it, but they will never come, because it's senseless.
The thing that immediately comes to mind though is that there are larger cultural forces that make this sort of thing possible. People are quick to blame mental illness, or a lone wolf, or guns, but the enabler is words. A great many people have made it clear that they believe the people of this community are less than human, and somehow a threat to everyone else. It's basic hate.
I am all for conversation and understanding, and not a fan of woke call-outs. But what I'm not fond of is people who dismiss the importance of words. So much of what we know and what we believe to be true is learned. We should stop teaching people to hate.
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