Today, our thoughts and prayers are with the survivors, families and friends of those victimized at the Pulse Club in Orlando, Florida yesterday.
While the target of the attack was a LGBTQI oriented club, we would do well to remember that those inside were Americans.
The moments of solidarity we feel with the victims and their loved ones should illustrate how easily we can forget the artificial differences between us.
These moments should also remind us to ignore the fear and hate now being offered in return by pundits and politicians; That kind of response is the primary goal of a terrorist* attack.
Yesterday was a horrific day for the LGBTQI community, for the Orlando, FL community, for Florida state, the country and the world. It will long be remembered. Let it not be remembered as a moment that we gave into fear.
(*it is still unclear at the time of writing whether the attack was a hate crime conducted under the color of terrorism or both a hate crime and a terrorist attack.)
Thank you.
The question of motive in my eyes is resolved, Crying out Allah Akbar while slaughtering innocents and calling 911 to pledge himself to ISIS does that for anyone who has two grey cells to rub together.,
Daniel,
with all due respect, I prefer to make statements of positive fact only when they are so.
I’m not saying exactly what the attack was because we simply do not know; given the information on hand at the moment, I believe it safe to say that it had a component of hate crime, and may have been terroristic as well.
I am not saying it was one or the other, nor am I saying it was one and not the other.
Other possibilities remain.
But the probability of those other scenarios is very very low.
The high probabilities are awaiting factual confirmation. Until then, we should withhold judgement. Once we do know exactly what took place, we’ll be better able to process it and respond in an appropriate manner, based on the facts.
It looks like it was both a terror and an antigay attack. Whether you’re straight or lie somewhere else on the sexual spectrum, you should condemn this attack, folks. Remember, these are all someone’s sons & daughters, brothers & sisters. They were no less human than you!