Letters to the Editor: Colorado shooting doesn’t change this: LGBTQ+ people exist. Always have, always will.
What has happened in our community this week has brought home to many of us, especially to our youth, in ways we may not have thought possible, what our lives are like. It has been clear to all of us that we need to do more to educate our youth on important topics such as bullying, mental health, gender, sexuality, human rights and justice, and the ways these topics impact the world today.
However, the actions of the shooter in Isla Vista this week have left us reeling. We can have compassion for the pain and shock the community has experienced over the loss of life and the aftermath of this tragedy, but we cannot and will not lose sleep over it. What kind of life do these perpetrators and their communities want to live?
Yes, we have much more work to do to help our community heal, but we also have the power to end the violence within our own communities. The world we live in as it is today, and the world we must continue to build for the future, cannot tolerate this kind of behavior from members of our community. We must find that balance in doing what is necessary to support the victims of this tragedy while not allowing the community to descend into a state of chaos or violence.
The world we live in is a far cry from the world we were taught to believe was, that is, should be, and will be. It is a world where we must have compassion for those who commit acts of violence, and we must have compassion for those who feel, who say, who feel targeted for our difference and who feel marginalized because of them.
When we as a community do not take the actions we know are necessary, we can be certain the perpetrators of these acts will continue. The world may not be as we once knew it, but what we know is, that if we continue to do nothing, it will continue to be changed.
It is
