Has Orlando changed us?
| Orlando, Fla.
Outside the Orlando Regional Medical Center, where 44 of the victims of the Pulse shooting were rushed in the early hours of Sunday morning, a nurse on Tuesday took a much-needed break in the sunshine.
Mary, who asked that her last name not be used, says the shooting, in which 49 died and 53 were injured, has deeply affected her. For the first time, it has moved her to challenge her own 鈥渟omewhat right-wing鈥� views on gun ownership.
In the past, she says, she has always been skeptical about efforts to blame guns 鈥� 鈥渕ere machines鈥� 鈥� for the murderous work of humans.
For her, the impact on her hometown and her hospital 鈥渞eally heightened my awareness 鈥� I mean, we train for this, and we see things on a daily basis, but to see it play out at this level of destruction makes [everything] more palpable, more real.鈥�
Other Orlando residents, shaken by the attack on the country鈥檚 tourist capital, had the opposite reaction: Gary Ellis, a waiter, says his first thought upon hearing about the shootings was to consider whether he should buy a gun for protection.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to happen again,鈥� he says of the violence, stopping in a local park after his shift. 鈥淚 worry that this was the rain shower before the monsoon.鈥�
The people of Orlando 鈥� from the hundreds of people lined up for hours in 92 degree heat to donate blood to the thousands that crowded the shores of Lake Eola Monday to mourn together 鈥� came together in the immediate aftermath in a show of strength and solidarity sadly familiar to residents of cities like San Bernardino, Charleston, and Boston. That feeling of community is becoming a rare and fleeting thing in a pluralized and polarized society, those interviewed said, adding that they wished it didn鈥檛 take a tragedy 鈥� that Americans could find ways to come together to do more than grieve.
While Americans interviewed across three cities expressed their sorrow and fear, their answers for how such attacks change society were as varied as the individuals. This is in many respects natural. But Americans鈥� increasing tendency to make every tragedy and crisis a justification for their own worldviews has fractured a sense of common purpose and community.
In this increasingly fragmented culture, the responses to the Orlando tragedy, rather than a portrait of a people unified in the wake of a tragedy, presents a mosaic of frustration and resignation, with a kernel of hope that maybe this time, somehow, things might be different.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think [the country] is becoming hardened 鈥� to these horrible tragedies,鈥� says Katherine Newman, a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and co-author of the 2004 book, 鈥淩ampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings.鈥� 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 becoming despairing of whether there鈥檚 a solution. I think there is a real frustration around the polarization that this situation has provoked.鈥�
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A makeshift memorial, strewn with flowers and American flags, draws mourners to Orange Avenue in Orlando. The site is two blocks from where police still surround Pulse, the gay nightclub into which Omar Mateen walked with a legally obtained AR-15 assault rifle early Sunday morning.
James Walker, who has lived in the Orlando area since he was 4, came to the spot to pay his respects 鈥� and witness the aftermath of what he called 鈥渙ur 9/11.鈥�
鈥淭his brings it all to my home, my city,鈥� says Mr. Walker, a college student. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the future of Orlando after this?鈥�
The question is one that many Americans are asking not just of Orlando but the country in general. It鈥檚 a query infused with frustration 鈥� at the economy, and what appears to be the nation鈥檚 declining status in the world; at government, for not doing more to prevent such attacks from taking place; and at one another, for not being able to find common ground even in the face of fear and danger.
鈥淲hen we went through the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 鈥�60s, we had about three news outlets, so everybody was watching the same news at night and could see together and then talk the next morning about what they saw,鈥� says Nancy Taylor, chief executive officer and senior minister of Old South Church in Boston, which is located yards away from the site of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. 鈥淣ow, people are watching whatever the heck they want to watch and whatever reinforces their own perspective, so it鈥檚 really hard to find a way to gather consensus around what is right and good and what is the common good.鈥�
While perhaps satisfying individually, this trend toward viewing the news largely through one鈥檚 personal lens has become corrosive at times when people yearn for the country to come together to find solutions.
Virginia Rowlett, who runs a children鈥檚 store in Los Angeles, says that 3,000 miles wasn鈥檛 enough to distance her from the tragedy. Even from afar, the attack further convinced her that America is coming apart at the seams, she says. Yet she and her husband, Jason, are just as certain that succumbing to the fear is the worst possible response.
These attacks are 鈥渁lmost becoming normal. Like, 鈥極h, it鈥檚 another shooting,鈥� 鈥� Mr. Rowlett says. 鈥淚 think everyone is expecting more to come. It鈥檚 just a matter of when.鈥�
Many of those interviewed expressed a similar feeling of dispirited resignation and concern that there is no interrupting the punctuations of mass violence in modern American life.
鈥淚 hate to say it, but I think it鈥檚 a new normal,鈥� says Joe Medwid, a financial services officer in Boston.
鈥淟ook at the shootings in Newtown: Children 鈥� 20 children 鈥� were killed,鈥� he says, referring to the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. 鈥淲as there a huge outcry and debate? Yes. Did anything change? Not really 鈥� at least not politically. So I think this is our new normal, which is just awful.鈥�
Quoting the lyrics of the Roberta Flack song, 鈥淏usiness Goes On As Usual,鈥� a Berklee College of Music professor in Boston says, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what it鈥檚 going to take for America and the world to learn and break this cycle of business going on as usual.鈥�
鈥淚 see this as no marquee event, no pivotal moment in America,鈥� says Lawrence Watson, who is also a social activist. 鈥淚t is just part and parcel of the violence.鈥�
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For Lucas Brooks, the shooting 鈥渇elt like a personal attack.鈥� As a gay man, he has seen unity after Orlando. But he also has been struck by how unusual that is 鈥� even among the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
鈥淚 always have a lot of feelings about the gay community when things like this happens. Yes, we all get angry, we all come together and we fight, we protest, we do vigils. During times of nontragedy, we are not particularly warm or welcoming to each other within the community,鈥� says Mr. Brooks, a performance artist and assistant manager at a hair salon on Tremont Street in Boston.
He points to phone apps that focus on physical appearance and discrimination based on body type or race. 鈥淚 hate to say it, but it鈥檚 kind of important for things like this to bring us together. I just wish they didn鈥檛 have to be so tragic. I went to the vigil yesterday, and there were so many people and it was beautiful. But I was thinking: Why don鈥檛 all these people come together more often? Because we are still fighting a really strong fight.鈥�
Lorri Jean, chief executive officer at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, says radicalism and easy access to guns were key factors in the massacre. But to her, the central concern is a continued assault on the LGBT community. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have to look overseas to see the bigotry that spawns this kind of violence,鈥� she said in a phone interview the day of the attack.
To others, the problem lies in government鈥檚 inability to come together long enough to protect its people.
鈥淭he Congress and the Senate have tied President Barack Obama鈥檚 hands,鈥� says Professor Watson at Berklee, when it comes to matters such as banning assault-style weapons like the one used in the attack. 鈥淲e have rendered this president impotent.鈥�
Still others say it鈥檚 a matter of turning the nation鈥檚 attention toward itself, instead of expending resources trying to help refugees and other non-Americans.
Edmund Pelka, an unemployed laborer who lives in Orlando, says that, as far as he鈥檚 concerned, the shooting proves what presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump said in a speech following the tragedy: That 鈥渨e鈥檙e importing terrorism into the West.鈥�
鈥淟ook at the Statue of Liberty, which says to the world: give me your tired, your hungry, your poor,鈥� Mr. Pelka says. 鈥淲ell, we need to chill out on that for a while, because right now, and especially after [the nightclub massacre], Americans are the ones who are tired, hungry, and poor.鈥�
Others see trying to isolate one symptom as too simplistic in the face of a society facing multilayered problems.
"It was a terrorist act, but it was also an act against the gay community, but it was also an issue of mental illness in this country,鈥� says Watson. 鈥淪o we鈥檝e got a very complicated matter here that deals with mental health, that deals with homophobia, that deals with racism, and deals with terrorism."
Several of those interviewed spoke in defense of the Muslim community and expressed hope that they would not be blamed for the act of a terrorist.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have hate for anybody. I can鈥檛 hate somebody for their religion 鈥� that would be stupid,鈥� says Natalija Zerojovic, a Serbian immigrant who identifies as queer.
鈥淚 feel it did not change how I feel about Islam. It confirmed, and reaffirmed, how I feel about Islamists or Islamism. I will draw that distinction 鈥� just as 海角大神s have their radical fringe who are violent as well,鈥� says Medwid, the financial services officer. 鈥淚n fact, my big beef is the people 鈥� doing their evil under the umbrella of these peaceful religions. And we know that they are not truly the manifestations of that peaceful religion.鈥�
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Amid the frustration, confusion, and conflicting opinions, tendrils of hope 鈥� and resolve 鈥� seep through.
鈥淏ecause of magnitude of this attack, there is hope 鈥� 聽that this will be a galvanizing incident that will lead to meaningful reform,鈥� says Josh Lockman, a lecturer in international law and United States foreign policy at the University of Southern California.
鈥淚t鈥檚 too soon to tell what will become of this episode,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it may very well shock the American public in ways that the frequency of shootings in this country wouldn鈥檛 normally.鈥�
Kate McKinnon, a social activist from Tucson who is currently working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, says that the fear that spurs people to violence and isolation can 鈥� and must be 鈥� battled back.
"We can鈥檛 really do anything about this except love each other. If we go and we try to attack the people who attacked us, it鈥檚 a never-ending cycle,鈥� she says.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 anything normal about what鈥檚 been happening as people have been driven to the far left and the far right,鈥� she adds. "I hope this is going to be a tipping point. This is so unacceptable and so outrageous."
Yes, the outpouring of empathy that follows tragedies like Orlando is often fleeting, says Professor Newman at UMass Amherst. But she doesn鈥檛 see the situation as hopeless as long as people are willing to turn away from hatred.
鈥淲e have to acknowledge that these are frightening times. And then you ask yourself, 鈥榃hat can I do to make a positive difference?鈥� 鈥�
Some have already begun answering the question. In Orlando, Mayor Buddy Dyer said that the city will resist being 鈥渄efined by the act of a hateful murderer.鈥�
鈥淲e will be defined by how we respond and how we are responding: with love, with compassion, with unity among our city,鈥� said Mayor Dyer, the Orlando Sentinel reports. "I don鈥檛 think we change a bit.鈥�
Patrik Jonsson reported from Orlando, Jessica Mendoza reported from Los Angeles, and Josh Kenworthy reported from Boston.聽
[Editor's note: The spelling of Lorri Jean's name has been corrected.]
