It seems as if every morning that I have woken up in recent months I have awoken to horrible, gut-wrenching news. This morning in particular, hearing the horrendous stories about the mass-shooting in Las Vegas, I couldn’t help but feel utterly heartbroken by the senseless act. I immediately reached for my phone to contact my parents, even though they are home in New York, but just for the sole purpose of comfort. I also took the time to research sources to help or ways to donate, but while doing so, I stumbled upon my Facebook feed. I expected to see floods of numerous messages of sorrow, but instead I found posts (mainly from the older generations) using the tragedy as a means to communicate their thoughts against gun control. It was incredibly disheartening to find posts that were advocating for weapons of mass-destruction on the day of a mass-shooting. I couldn’t help but feel as if the tragedy was being used a platform for another political debate. Despite my original feeling that the tragedy would unite the country, I was saddened by the fact that it was actually dividing people. I began to question if tragedy truly brings people together?
On the other hand, the recent tragic death on our own campus had quite the opposite reaction. I know for my sorority personally we had sent flowers to Phi Lambda Chi, along with baked dinners and desserts. Each time I walk down Wadsworth to class, I felt heart-warmed to see other people dropping gifts off, and expressing their sympathy. Last year, when our campus mourned the death of Kelsey and Matt, I believe that the campus had a similar reaction, and that we truly were brought together as #OneKnight. It is moments like these that remind me that at least our campus is full of kind-hearted and united individuals. After reconsidering this, I asked myself the question again- does tragedy bring people together?
If you have any answers to this question, I would be open to hearing your opinions. I cannot seem to create my own definite answer.