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Writer's pictureAnna Lee Ambrose

Triggered


Who's with me???

There's a really good reason why I only allow myself to look at the news feed that comes so easily to my phone just once a week. Yesterday I opened my news feed and what do I see? "Police report active shooter on Ohio state university campus"

Come on America!

How many more times do we need to witness these types of incidents before we do something about it that will really make an impact on dissolving the problem?? Thank goodness there were no casualties at least in this incident. Perhaps we can look at that as a blessing, as a sign that we need to dig deeper into the problem before it gets worse.

What was the first point the media made after this got out? Shooter was of Somalian descent.

What was the first thought that came to you upon learning that piece of news? Did you feel love or did you feel something that was closer to hate? Were you able to relate more to the victims, the college kids who got injured, or to the shooter? By the way, the 'shooter' didn't even have a gun. He charged into a crowd with his car and came out with a butcher knife. But regardless, he used both his car and the knife as weapons.

So who would you empathize with more? I feel our news media feeds on hate more than love. Sometimes I feel like our news media writes a story with a perspective that's supposed to be based on facts just so they can appease to the widest audience. Or how about leaving us with negative emotions like hate and sadness and defeat rather than hey, this happened, and it's horrible, but what are we going to do about it now?

If you're curious you might follow up with this news feed and find out that the "shooter" not only fled to the U.S. with his family legally, (yes, they were legal U.S. Permanent Residents like many of us, our parents or grandparents) but that he was here in America, getting an education (again, like many of us, our parents or grandparents). He graduated from a community college with honors earlier this year and went on to Ohio State as a logistics major. He was even featured in an August campus paper saying that as a Muslim he was scared of praying in the open because there was no where he could pray on campus, and that he was afraid of what people might think.

Hello people??? Would you say this was a red flag??

Now I also learned that he had posted some things on Facebook that indicated he was not happy with how America was interfering with Muslim countries and specifically about an American born al-Qaeda official killed in a 2011 drone attack. Again, red flag maybe?? Now I'm not saying his actions are justified. By no means should anyone harm another person unless it's in self-defense. As a matter of fact, I probably would've done the same thing the officer did in that situation. Again, self-defense. The officer had to protect.

So what now? Do we go back to hating all people that remind us of these attacks? What about all the non-violent Muslims that live in our country? How do you think they feel after each of these types of incidents? Again, I urge you to read my article on the Superhero mentality, and then let's figure out together how we can make this world a safer and more positive place to live in.

So I don't know about you, but I'm triggered. I'm not triggered because this piece of news makes me angry at the guy who did this, or sad for the people that got hurt or fearful that it could happen to me or my family (although yes, I am a little because my eldest child will be going to college in a couple more years), because I've felt those emotional reactions too many times already. But I'm triggered because I'm frustrated that this is still going on in the world, and I'm triggered to take action and fight for us as a human race. Are you ready to do the same? Who's with me???


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