Orlando

I was going to write something well-thought-out and wise about the events in Orlando Sunday morning. But I can't. I'm tapped out. We move from one incomprehensible event to another and we just get deflated. We have no control, or so it would seem, and we just get more and more dispirited.

That we have an obvious and perhaps incurable gun problem in America is clear. Surprisingly, it is a divisive issue. People on one side can't understand the people on the other side, and events do nothing to change minds. Problems would be solved, one side says, if there were no guns; problems would be solved, the other side says, if there were more guns. There's little or no common ground. Even though the majority of Americans favor strict controls, the minority that doesn't favor them is very large. I personally simply can't understand the opposition. Meanwhile, they think I'm totally wrong. Where do we go with this?

Given that impasse, no wonder we're tapped out. We know we're stuck. What makes it worse is the sour negativity that always seems to come in response to these events. Blame is dispensed haphazardly and to ruinous effect. Our friends and neighbors are dead or in pain, and hateful, spiteful words offer no solace, and no future solutions. A bad situation is made worse. With each event that rises from fear and hate and insanity and results in violence, enabled by our culture's inability to control the tools of violence, we lose a little more of the good. Modern life begins to require constant vigilance—an idea that was once in aid of liberty but is now reassigned to safety—and a progressive insensitivity to passing events. We are all diminished by it.

I only offer one hope. I have spent many years in a community that values knowledge and education and inclusion and diversity. It is often a chaotic, confusing community, but I strongly believe in it, and I strongly believe that its values are of absolute importance in our modern world. Young people motivated to fight for good is a great strength, and anyone involved in continuing that motivation, that is, the enlightened educators who persist against all odds, are making it happen. Please continue to learn and to teach and to reach out to everyone. That's the only chance we have.

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