We Need to Do Something

As I sat down to write this week's post, I learned about the tragedy of the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. As of my typing this, there are 50 confirmed dead and 53 injured. Pulse, the location of this horrendous hate crime, was a gay club. It is Pride Month and it was Latin night. The victims of this completely preventable crime were there at a club that was likely a home away from home for them and on a night that was honoring and valuing the latin@s in the community. They should have been safe. This shouldn't keep happening. It just shouldn't. So if you're looking for a library oriented post this week, you'll have to wait until I publish the guest post on Thursday. I need to write about gun violence in this country.

i find myself searching for this tweet every few months pic.twitter.com/Nfb3o2WFM7

— EMO SLUT (@princess_labia) June 12, 2016

I understand the implied fatalistic attitude in that tweet, but I can't give into it. This is not inevitable. Nobody should have to live in constant fear that they will be the random victim of a bullet, and we all do now. We all do. Schools aren't safe. Libraries aren't safe. Churches aren't safe. Night clubs. Movie theaters. Nowhere is safe. And we deserve to feel safe. We need to do something about this.

Please, if you live in the US, contact your elected officials. Here are a few links you can use:

• Contact your senator. (I haven't found a way to link directly to the list, but that page has a pull down menu in the top right corner that is labeled "Find Your Senator".)
• Contact your representative.
• Contact your governor.

I'm not going to argue with anyone about whether or not we need gun control, so I'm turning the comments off for this post. If you try to bully me on other posts or on Twitter or wherever you can find me, that won't work either. I'm also not going to post all the countless works that have been written about how guns just mean more gun violence, not safety. If you haven't come to believe that yet, nothing I link is going to convince you. Guns are too easy to obtain. That's it. Or, in the words of my friend, Donna Lanclos:

Spew homophobic poison & insist on arming bigots & have the NERVE to offer feeble prayers instead of moral and legislative courage FUCK YOU

— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) June 12, 2016

And here's one of the cutest gifs I've seen in a while as a way to thank you for taking action:

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