Orlando nightclub shooting: 49 dead, shooter claimed ISIS allegiance. Scroll down. Las Vegas shooting: 59 killed and more than 500 hurt near Mandalay Bay. Keep scrolling. Florida shooting: 17 killed as gunman opens fire at a Parkland high school. Swipe up. Ten people killed in Texas high school shooting; suspect in custody. Pause. Take a breath. Keep scrolling. 11 dead, several others shot at Pittsburgh synagogue. Keep scrolling. Thousand Oaks shooting is the 307th mass shooting in 2018. Keep scrolling. Keep scrolling. Keep scrolling.
The list of mass shootings in just the last few years could fill up this entire newspaper. But since they have become more frequent, does that change how we define tragedy? Do we need to set a new record for deaths, or do racial or religious prejudices push the event into the national spotlight? What will it take to finally force us to make a real change? Does a single death even matter anymore?
Every day, there are new headlines informing us of a new tragedy, and with each released headline, we just scroll faster. As media platforms bombard us with never-ending stories of death and loss, a feeling of numbness grows. We compare each incident based on the number of lives lost, and we measure out the time we will spend thinking about and mourning each tragedy based on that number. In many cases, the only thing we remember is that number. Because we are distanced from the events, we rarely remember details, and the emotional impact wears off with time.
Piedmont does a good job of spreading the news through emails, community messages, and moments of silence for the victims of mass shootings and other tragedies. But, though we recognize these instances, there is still a disconnection. Anyone can sit in silence for less than a minute; we need to educate ourselves on the facts of the events and try to find an emotional connection to the victims. We need to stop focusing on the statistics and remember the stories. That way, when the next moment of silence arises–and it will–we can truly think about and remember the victims instead of simply staring down at our desks, waiting for this moment of silence to end so that we can move on with our day.
We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to these tragedies. We have to feel again. We have to sympathize, empathize, be anything but apathetic. These evils should not stop us from living our lives, but it is our duty as fellow human beings to take the time out of our lives to respect those who lost theirs. When we see a number, we cannot simply frown and then move on. We have to remember that each of those numbers represents a life lost. It is more than a number. It is a life, a story, a being of experiences, emotions, feelings, all come to an end. We have to remember that each life is the center of a web of people, all whose lives will never be the same. If we could zoom in on each life, each story, we could see the impact each victim leaves behind.
We can all take a more active role to create change. The first step is to notice our numbness. The omnipresence of death and destruction has created this insensitivity. If we acknowledge that, we can begin to feel again, and then decide to take a more active role against these tragedies. We can respond through political advocacy in our country and community as a whole. We are, and always have been, capable of empathy. We just need to remember how.
