Making Sense of Orlando
Although mainstream media outlets and presidential candidates rushed to make sure their interpretation of the Pulse Orlando massacre prevailed, the story and significance of the tragedy are more complex and deserve careful consideration.
Mourners embrace on June 13 during a vigil in downtown Orlando, Fla., for those killed June 12 in a mass shooting at the Pulse Orlando nightclub. (David Goldman / AP)
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But not everything is complex and hard to pin down. A few things stand out in stark clarity, chief among them the easy availability of weapons of war to any number of would-be criminals with any manner of motivation to spur them to kill. The AR-15 rifle, a variant of which the shooter reportedly used in the massacre, is cast as a “sporting rifle” and closely related to the military grade M16. It is widely available across the country and is in millions of American homes today. Want to curb gun violence? Curb guns.
Another aspect of the massacre that stands out in stark relief is how the war against immigrants (Latino, Asian, Muslim and others) here in the U.S. is a mirror image of the wars the U.S. is fighting in the Arab and Muslim world and in other spots on the globe. Our political interference in Latin America has created such instability and violence that it is pushing people to escape poverty and violence via migration. Our fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Somalia has fomented similar instability and violence, causing millions to flee. Those who flee face more persecution, hunger and brutality. These wars are futile and inhumane. They are designed to divide us from one another. We must reject them.
And finally, we need to open our eyes to the similarity of extremist beliefs among fundamentalists. Islamic State gleefully took credit for the Orlando massacre (although U.S. authorities have no evidence the attack was directed from an external source). Islamic State has built its bloody reputation in part on the brutal persecution of LGBT Arabs. Hate-filled anti-gay rhetoric emanates from Western extremist religious groups as well, uniting Christian and Muslim fundamentalists in their homophobia. The rest of us ought to be united, regardless of our racial, religious, gender identity or sexual orientation, in seeing each other as human beings composed of myriad and complex layers. It is the best antidote to propaganda and the push for war, votes and ratings.
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