Leaving Nothing Behind

We won’t let them win, you say.

We won’t give them the satisfaction of living in fear.

Because that’s what they want, you say.

We won’t stop going to work.

We won’t stop going to school.

We won’t stop going to restaurants.

We won’t stop going to coffee shops.

We won’t stop going to the movies.

We won’t stop going to concerts.

We won’t stop going to the mall.

We won’t stop going to houses of worship.

We won’t stop riding public transportation.

We won’t stop walking the streets.

We won’t stop visiting ice cream shops.

We won’t stop playing on playgrounds.

Because that’s what they want, you say. They want us to stop doing everything that makes us ‘us’.

Should we not stop, though? At least for a minute?

Long enough to be thankful that we’re not one of the ones who can no longer choose not to stop?

Long enough to remember that some of the ones who can choose not to stop loved the ones who can no longer choose not to stop?

Long enough to learn about the ones who can no longer choose not to stop rather than the one or ones who made the choice for them?

Long enough to keep a loss of life headline ahead of a political headline even if a political headline is better for business?

Long enough to search for the story about innocent families killed outside an ice cream shop in Baghdad because that story doesn’t even make the news?

Long enough for us all to agree that regardless of our stance on guns or gun ownership, when a gun or any other weapon is used to destroy lives, it’s a horrible thing that should not elicit an argument of any sort?

We must not stop, you say. We must not give them what they want.

We will remember.

We will pray.

We will light candles.

We will hold a benefit concert.

We will do all of that and more.

If we’re talking about loss of life in the Western world.

Why is that? You never say.

And who is ‘us’? And who is ‘them’? And who are ‘you’?

And why do we let ‘you’ and ‘them’ lead us to believe that nothing is what we should do and is all that we can do?

Nothing is not something.

Nothing is nothing.

Nothing will never make a difference.

I am you.

You are me.

They are us.

We are them.

Your something, my something, and their something may be different.

But our nothing is the same.

Seven billion nothings result in nothing.

But just one something does more than seven billion nothings.

My nothing ends today.

May yours do the same.

-Jessica Holt © 2018