by Nadia Ramoutar  MMM Communications Coordinator                Ireland             18.09.2023

It’s unusual for me to say that something shocked me, but this week it did.

There can be a lot of darkness in the world and I am not immune to the ill effects of the news. I try as best I can to focus on lighting a small candle, rather than cursing the darkness.

Many year ago in my earlier career I was a reporter and worked in news. I eventually got tired of it and decided I wanted to make a difference in the world and not just report what was wrong all day long. It was a huge shift in my career but it is not one that I regret. I believe that journalism and news are very important parts of our society and we need to know what is going on locally and globally.

The news from where I used to live in Florida for many years took my breath away this week.

A 21 year old man deliberately stalked and shot black people in a hate crime killing three of them. I will not go into the details here but I will say that the cruelty and hatred in such a young man is tragic and now innocent lives are lost because of his hatred. What shook me further was that the young man used to go to a college where I had been a communications professor for many years. It was all too close to home for me. How does society breed such hatred?

I am not here to be political or talk about guns. I just question the loss here and how disturbing such racism and hatred continue to be. We can’t be passive about the ignorance that fuels racism and causes a young person to act this way. I am unable to comprehend that level of misguided emotion and the actions fuelled by it.

We need more love in the world. We need to find a way to reach young people and to educate them about the importance of diversity and inclusion. We need to bridge the gaps that a lack of love creates in communities. We have a serious issue when seeds of hatred are allowed to grow so tall as to choke good people to death.

When such a brutal and senseless crime takes place, it leaves a massive hole in the world. Beautiful lives lost in a second while shopping and going about their daily lives. Compassion for the victims and their families is easy to rouse. But, what of the killer’s family? After killing the people, he shot himself. What happens to his family now? How will their lives forever be scarred?

Violence is so prevalent in our world these days, I hope and pray we are not accepting it as normal. I hope we will question how we can counteract such a loss with love or better yet, prevent such a loss.

I will reflect on this and contemplate a better world. I hope you will too.