Fort Hood and Orlando

As many of you may have heard by now, there were 2 incidents that took place over the past two days where many innocent lives were lost. In Fort Hood, Texas, Nidal M. Hasan opened fire after learning he would be deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan. He was of Islamic faith and being shipped to fight in either of these wars was his worst nightmare. He was often the subject of ridiculed on base for his beliefs. On November 5th, 2009, he decided his best form of relief was to murder 13 people and wound 28 in one of the deadliest rampages the United States have seen since Virginia Tech. Hasan was shot while reloading his weapons, and remains in stable condition.

Today in Orlando, FL, Jason Rodriguez returned to an office where he was formerly employed, and shot 6 people, killing one of them. When asked why he committed this crime, he answered simply “They left me to rot”. He had no criminal record prior to this incident and is in police custody now.

Am I saying that either one of these “horrific outburst of violence” (as President Obama so elegantly puts it) justifiable in any way, shape, or form, absolutely not. Violence is never the answer in situations like this. But this should be a wake up call to all of us who are quick to ridicule someone based on something that person may hold dear to them. Lets not all jump to talking about how cowardly, vicious, sick or deranged these 2 men were, that’s part of the reason we have arrived to these unfortunate events. Times are rough all over the United States, and as we can clearly see, the road only gets rougher from here. We have to work together during these trying times and help one another out. Let us instead keep the victims in our thoughts and in our hearts.