Timothy Pate

What do you say after a mass shooting? I hate that this particularly devastating type of tragedy is so commonplace that my question beckons an answer based in experience.

I’m not the one to speak to what happened in Orlando, except to say that I’m so sorry to the families and friends who lost someone that night. We must do better for them.

I just want to share some of the beautiful words that did emerge from this destruction, as they always do somehow.

Richard Kim wrote elegantly:

Gay bars are therapy for people who can’t afford therapy; temples for people who lost their religion, or whose religion lost them; vacations for people who can’t go on vacation; homes for folk without families; sanctuaries against aggression. They take sound and fabric and flesh from the ordinary world, and under cover of darkness and the influence of alcohol or drugs, transform it all into something that scrapes up against utopia.

Anderson Cooper’s tribute to the 49 victims was powerful.

Boston Globe is collecting and sharing the life stories of the victims.

It was inspiring to see swarms of people lining up to donate blood in Florida. In the end, we are mostly a loving species, but we’ve got to stop waiting for tragedies like this one to be the clarion calls for human decency.

Don’t stop grieving, don’t stop loving, and don’t stop fighting. We can stop this from happening again.