BRATTLEBORO — When my tears run dry and my heart stops aching, maybe then I can think more clearly.
But for right now, this moment, I need to believe that love is the answer.
I need to believe that hate has no home here and will not dominate our beautiful country. I need love to be the answer.
I need love to be what keeps the people who lost their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, best friends and soulmates, alive and lifted up.
I need love to make the change we so desperately need to happen.
I need love to motivate people to be better. Do better. Act better. Live better.
I need love to be the answer.
I need hate to dissolve into love. I need hate to not be the reflex that this horrendous act perpetrates. I need hate to be abolished and love to take its place.
I need love to motivate us all to raise a generation of world changers. I need love to prevent this from happening again.
I need love to be the answer.
I need to believe that we are better than this. That this is not our new normal. That this was an act of one single individual who didn't have enough love.
I need love to be the answer because I can't fathom there being any other.
To Orlando, I love you.
To the victims, I love you.
To the afraid and angry and devastated, I love you.
To the LGBTQ community everywhere, I love you.
To you, reading this, I love you.
Let's be that change we so desperately need.