Unpopular Opinion: Tragedy

Unpopular Opinion: 'feeling bad' about a terrible tragedy does nothing to make it better, coding your facebook profile picture with the French Flag does not make anything better. What happened in Paris this past week was nothing short of horrendous, a terrible tragedy that is a black mark on humanity akin to evil. And we should have a visceral, even internally violent reaction to it; that shows our humanity. However, if it sops there, then nothing has changed. Additionally, sending 'good thoughts' to someone, does not really do anything either. I have been thinking about this for years, ever since poor Elliot Rodgers shot up Isla Vista. I saw a community come together in response, but really, what does that do. The claim could be made that any of these responses that I am calling out can create within someone a heart of greater compassion and empathy, or that they could spread awareness of the issue; I am open to these arguments. But that actually does cut to the truth of the matter: the tragedy is internal before it is ever external. Allow me to reiterate before I continue, what happened in Paris is a tragedy, a tragedy that cannot be reversed; unfortunately no tragedy can be reversed. But as a society it is imperative that we fix and repair what it is within us that creates this type of tragedy, and even more, offers little in terms of practical reactions. Look, it's not necessarily a bad thing to have these reactions, but it is not enough. Donating money to relief, praying for France (if you believe that prayer has affect beyond the words), calling your loved ones to make sure that their hearts are not thoroughly grieved, and most of all, removing ourselves from the fantasy worlds in which we too often chose to dwell in order to work on our society. There is much work that needs to be done, evidenced even by the selfish reactions to the tragedy, the 'me-centered' reactions. Our society has lost its code of ethics and its desire to come alongside those who are suffering and sacrifice, suffer ourselves, to make sure that their suffering does not last and that they are treated with light at the end of the tunnel. That is something that affects change. Our all too-often pitiful excuses for feeling bad, sending good-thoughts, or changing our facebook tragedies temporarily does not cut to the heart; their are ineffective.
Let me be clear about one thing: I am a hypocrite. I did and have been praying for France, (and I should be praying for ISIS) but I have not given money, I have not opened the much-needed social dialogue that needs to be opened to talk about what to do. I have not asked France what they need in their time of suffering. But I do want to open the dialogue. I do want to challenge our society to think through where we are at as a culture, a species even, that gun violence, racism, sexual slavery, selfishness, and gross income inequality not only exist but are prevalent. Honestly, we need to take time not only personally and individually, but socially on the micro and macro levels to discuss the changes that need to be made. These changes have to start in our hearts, inwardly. We need to get back to thinking how we can love each other, how we can care about each other. The mindset needs to change from 'what can I get from this person' to 'what can I sacrifice for this person.' We need to change our personal and our collective narratives. The technology in our society allows us to be more connected than ever before with people with whom we never would have had access to before. And it has not seemed to increase compassion and generosity, but rather beat these concepts down and suppressed them. It is a terrible fact of modern culture and life. It is on us. We cannot continue to attribute these tragedies to 'the other' whomever that may be, and play the role of the victim. I am not saying that the guilty party needn't be held responsible, they very much should in ever tragedy, but while we 'feel bad', 'send good thoughts', 'offer our condolences', and change our Facebook pictures, let us also try to love France, let us also examine our own hearts and see who we possess hate towards, let us also change the selfish course of our lives such that we are utterly considerate of the plights of those around us, near and far, and include them in our narratives. Rather than focusing on esoteric 'feelings', let us seek both short-term and long-term change.
Once one group is defeated, another will not cease to step up and take their place unless we begin to think long and hard, and it will be hard make no mistake, honest, critical self-examination always is, at our hearts in order to affect change for good. And then start to put those things into motion. Do not just make it words or feelings, but actions and attitudes of the heart. Sacrifice until it cuts you, give until it hurts you, love until you feel as if you have nothing left to give, and do not dare think of yourself so highly that you can justify hate. I am not saying that I possess all of the actions or that I do not have more work to do than anybody else, I do, but I am interested in actually affecting long-term change so that maybe my kids will not be so acquainted with the inane frequency of heart-wrenching tragedies as I am. We are flying upside down. Let's start to right the ship.