‘Our Safe Space’

A week ago, I had some hope.

I can be a bit cynical—some might even say “hostile”—if I don’t keep a close watch on these thoughts of mine.

People can get on my nerves rather quickly—if I allow them to--but every so often something happens that almost restores my faith in humanity.

Last week, I went to my bank’s branch on 86th Street and 5th Avenue after the gym and found the ATMs had been taken offline.

This sucked monkey balls.

I had planned on doing some shopping at a fruit store one block away and I wasn’t sure if I had enough cash in my wallet. Some of the local businesses strongly prefer cash over plastic.

As I was leaving, a man approached me and began speaking in Spanish, obviously looking to get some money as well.

I did my best to explain the branch was out of the commission and pointed to a sign indicating the next one was 11 blocks away.

It took a little effort, but he eventually got the idea. As I started to walk away when he called out to me.

I thought I would have to go through it again, but then I saw that he was gesturing toward his car—he was offering me a ride.

I politely declined and headed off to my fruit store. But I was so touched by this act of kindness from a total stranger.

All right, it wasn’t much, really—just a five-minute car ride to a place he was going anyway, but this fellow wasn’t obliged to help me at all.

I thought about this man several times in the last week, and how lucky I was that we both happened to go to the same place on a chilly Sunday morning.

I promised myself that I’d pass this act of kindness along, while doing my best to improve my attitude.

Night of the Long Rifles

And then I got up this morning and saw that we had yet another mass shooting in America.

This latest atrocity took place at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, where at least five people were killed and another 25 were injured, some of whom were in critical condition.

Two firearms, including a “long rifle” were found at Club Q after the shooting.

This was the sixth mass killing this month—this month—and comes in the same year that 21 people were murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex.

We don’t know the reason for this rampage in Colorado—the location of several mass shootings, including the one at Columbine High School in 1999—but one thing we do know is that absolutely nothing will happen.

We’ll have the terrified survivors’ accounts, the candlelight vigils, and the stacks of flowers piled outside the club.

“Our safe space is no longer our safe space,” one survivor told NBC. “We shouldn’t have to come together after something like this.”

But the gun laws will not be changed, as the same people who shriek about crime—at least prior to the election—will be the same ones howling about Second Amendment rights, freedom, and the Founding Fathers—America’s star-spangled version of The Walking Dead.

Bear in mind that many of these same “patriots” have made a career out of demonizing gay people as groomers and pedophiles. And, of course, they’ll deny that their disgusting words had anything to do with this shooting.

Of course, the dead only come back in Hollywood. In the real world, people are gone forever and now five families will be burying their loved ones instead of celebrating Thanksgiving.

I am glad I ran into that man outside my bank last week—even more so now. I hope he and his loved ones have a happy and safe holiday season.

It helps a little bit to think about the good, kind people in this world, rather than the monsters.

But the monsters will keep on coming as long as we sit back and do nothing.