Reaction To The Orlando Shootings

Emily.

She’s an annoying, loud mouthed, preacher type who always has to be right.  She does have her good points.  She can be funny and her perspective on life is interesting, but the belief that her opinion is the only one that matters has knocked her down in life.  It’s even gotten her fired on more than one occasion because she is so outspoken.

Oh, and did I mention that she’s gay?

Actually, that should have been the first thing I said about her.  That’s because she screams it from the rooftops with rainbow pins making it her personal mission to be walking poster for LGBT rights.  When meeting a new hire–well, before she was let go–she once even said  “Hi, I’m Emily.  I’m gay.”

Of course she blames the reaction she gets from people on her homosexuality.  “They don’t listen to me because I’m gay.”  she’ll tell everyone.  Once I gently pointed out that Chuck, the accountant, was also gay and nobody had problem with it but she got defensive.  “Chuck is a man, and people always take men more seriously than women.”  she rationalized, unwilling to accept that maybe nobody listens to her because she is obnoxious.

Honestly, if homosexuality was 100 percent acceptable and women were considered equal, Emily would still find something else to be up in arms about.  She would talk about how nobody takes her seriously because she’s an artist of sorts, or something similar to that. She uses being gay as a shield.  I guess it’s easier to say “They don’t like me because I’m gay,” rather than “They don’t like me for me.”

Because she is on a crusade for gay people everywhere, the Orlando shootings were very hard for Emily.  Like a lot of people,  she took the attack personally.  I don’t blame her.  It was horrible thing that happened, and it genuinely cut her to the core.

But, Emily being Emily she had to come up with some way to make it about her.  How the public didn’t do enough to suit her ideals.

Just yesterday she fired off an angry social media post about how mad she was that Facebook and Twitter didn’t shut down for a day of silence.  She said that it was ridiculous how the world could keep going on, and how people could keep posting pictures of their children and pets when such a disaster had happened.   How before social media, there was respect and it was utterly horrendous how  we as a nation couldn’t shut up for a second to think of the victims.  She called everyone who did post on that day classless animals who only thought of themselves.

She got a variety of reactions (from friends not the general public) ranging from “you go girl,” to outright disagreement.

I declined to weigh in because I knew this was just another case of Emily being Emily, but it really irked me.   For one thing, if you need a moment of silence, SHUT OFF THE COMPUTER.  For another you can’t demand other people mourn in the way that you see fit.  For some people it takes time to sink in.  For others, a little diversion is needed from the tragedy, and even still, some people might be late to the party and not know what’s going on.

I guess it just pisses me off that Emily could think her reaction is the only right one.   Horrible things happen every day, the world doesn’t stop turning.   I hope one day she will understand being gay or being an artist, or being a woman doesn’t entitle you to act obnoxiously and have a fit.  Everyone is different, everyone has a perspective, and everyone has challenges.  Your reaction to something is not necessarily the only one.

 

 

No Emotion After Tragedy

What’s Wrong With Me?

The Twin Towers disaster, the terrorist attacks on Paris, the recent Orlando shooting….

I have no emotional response to these tragedies and others like them.  The only thing I do feel is annoyance having to wade through social media post after post displaying how outraged other people seem to be.  There’s a slight fear that such a tragedy could happen to me, but mostly I’m perturbed that I have to hear about it for weeks on end.

I used to pretend I was upset and go through the motions.  I remember after  9/11 going to some kind of candlelight vigil.  I tried to care.  I knew I should care.  Everyone else seemed to, but deep down, there was nothing.  I remember thinking “this is stupid.  I don’t even know anyone who died.”

I don’t think I’m cold hearted.  I merely have a difficult time connecting with something that didn’t happen to me or anyone I know personally.

I’m certainly capable of empathy.  A guy I went to high school with years ago died from a drug overdose and I was devastated.  I didn’t know him well, but the sadness I felt for his family was genuine.  In fact I went numb with shock from the news and cried real tears at his funeral.  When a little boy I used to teach in children’s choir passed away, I could hardly speak from the grief.  I remember feeling the weight of it crashing down on me, and remember feeling desperate to somehow help his parents through it.  I’m still effected by that loss, and don’t know that I’ll ever recover.

I wonder if other people feel like I do about global tragedies, but are only acting devastated because they feel they should.  I wish I could genuinely feel bad for victims and their families, but I just can’t get it up.  I’m too far removed to genuinely care.

I suppose I’ll continue to feign sadness about this Orlando shooting with some kind of FaceBook post.  And honestly, maybe it doesn’t matter if the motivation for my post is genuine remorse or social pressure.  After all, if money given out of genuine feeling spends just as well as money given out of obligation.