... what if Umpqua is *your* fault?
Look, I recognize, you didn't pull the trigger. You weren't on campus. You might not even own a firearm.
But what if you contributed to the underlying sickness in society that devalues life? What if you support the rampant intolerance of anyone not like yourself that is the foundation laid so that beings can be more easily discarded?
What if you tend to write off whole groups of people with a simple label because getting to know a person as an individual is too complicated ... the left, the right, the conservative, the liberal, the anyone-not-like-me, the anyone-who-doesn't-practice-faith-as-I-do, the anyone-who-loves-differently-than-I, the anyone-of-different-race-color-religion-national origin-age-sex-orientation-gender-etc-etc-etc.? What if that pervasive "fear of other" manifests itself in our nation's collective subconsciousness as permission to eradicate the different and the dissimilar?
What if the root cause of this repetitive cycle of random extinction at the hands of the armed and unsettled is not only the deprioritization of funding for mental health resources ... or the extremism interjected into any discussion by powerful lobbying groups ... or the intractability of government entities for whom compromise is no longer a quiver in the arsenal of advancing a society ... or the excessive media coverage that encourages the copycats to take action ... what if the root cause of this violence is how dismissive you have become of anyone not like you ... a dismissiveness that has spread throughout the common culture faster than any wildfire aided by the winds of social media ... a corruptive cancer of your soul that has damned the souls of others?
What if you thought before you spoke ... before you posted ... before you tweeted ... before you shared ... before you hated?
What if it's your fault? And then, if so, what if you can also be the solution? What if you can change and start to make a difference? What if you can change the world?
What if it all starts with you?
WHAT IF? ... JOIN THE DEBATE:
http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-it-possible-for-one-person-to-change-the-world
THE POWER OF THE ONE:
http://www.one.org/us/2014/04/30/9-acts-of-individual-defiance-that-changed-the-world/
COME ON PEOPLE NOW SMILE ON YOUR BROTHER:
https://vimeo.com/23661693
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