What Do I Have To Say About Orlando? (Yeah, I'm angry, dammit!) Republicans, Democrats, You're Both Wrong. Now, Shut Up, Sit Down, And Let Me Tell You Why. [And yes this IS an opinion piece, bite me!]

There are times, when in the wake of tragedy, that I find myself without words. I can't say why, I haven't quite found the words for that either. All I can say for certain is that some moments were crafted to only breed silence, and, for me at least, the Orlando shooting certainly created one of these void moments.

Naturally, there were those that did not share my complication.

There were some (Generally, those with the natural inclination to never cease reminding us of America's ability to be, "great again," and those who dream of a world where Bernie Sanders challenges the Democratic nomination into Hillary Clinton's presidency) who I would argue had too much to say, even.

It was these very people who accelerated me far beyond the stage of silence, into a sullen bitterness on the matter. Thus, this manuscript. Consider it the manifesto of my disdain for the political process, which has become a systematic method for officials to push gut-wrenching, heart-jerking issues toward the back aisle while they find a way to appease their establishment. If I could spat over the internet, I would spat.

So, here we are. We have once again knocked on the "Muslims are evil" door. We need to have a talk about Islam.

It's no secret that the global cause of terrorism is of predominantly Islamic nature. I'm afraid denying that will not help resolve this issue any more than blaming the Islamic faith for it will. Correct, I also will not blame Islam for these attacks.

I blame a large part of this misguided hatred toward Muslim culture, in truth, to the simple misunderstanding of what Islam says, is, and believes. The Quran is the primary religious text of the Islamic faith, and is (in layman's terms) the third portion of the Biblical trilogy. Now, the Quran itself is, in truth, divided into two very distinct books: the Mecca and Medina portions. The Mecca Quran preaches tolerance, love for all mankind, spirituality, and pureness of the soul, and was written by Muhammad (or rather a scribe, as Muhammad was illiterate) while in Mecca. However, once Muhammad and his followers arrived in Medina, they were met with much harsher conditions. These conditions lead to starvation and attacks from Jewish tribes in return for the Muslim caravan raids.

Throughout his time in Medina, the teachings of Muhammad became increasingly violent, as Muhammad no longer had the wealth and support of Mecca.

So, for any person to say the Quran is a book of peace would be lying, in part, at least. Yet, the vast majority of Muslim followers would never consider something like murder, or rape, or the hatred which we've painted their faith with. Why is this?

Quite simply, it is widely accepted to only follow the peaceful teachings of Muhammad. Religions are not blocks of stone, forever unchanging. They are crafted with time, and to point to a single verse, or a lone radical, and try to uniform such violence to an entire population of decent, even spiritual, people is morally inept.

The Christian Right should understand this theme better than any group. *Cough*

Anyone who blasphemes God’s name must be stoned to death by the whole community of [believers]. (Leviticus 24:16)

Cursed be he who does God’s work remissly, cursed he who holds back his sword from blood. (Jerimiah 48:10)

If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12)

But if [a girl wasn't a virgin on her wedding night] and evidence of the girl's virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father’s house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against God’s people by her unchasteness in her father's house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)

Everyone who would not seek God was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13)

A [holy man’s] daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death. (Leviticus 21:9)

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. (Numbers 31:17-18)

If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)

Then I heard God say to the other men, "Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children.” (Ezekiel 9:5)

Make ready to slaughter [the infidel’s] sons for the guilt of their fathers; Lest they rise and posses the earth, and fill the breadth of the world with tyrants. (Isaiah 14:21)

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. (Matthew 10:34-35)

Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the [holy man] who represents God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged. (Deuteronomy 17: 12)

I will fill your mountains with the dead. Your hills, your valleys, and your streams will be filled with people slaughtered by the sword. I will make you desolate forever. Your cities will never be rebuilt. Then you will know that I am God. (Ezekiel 35:7-9)

*Cough*

Now, I will be the last to say religion is evil, but this is only to say that we can all surely be more understanding about having parts to forget in our Holy texts. Yes? So I submit to you, if Christianity is not a faith of hatred, neither is Islam under the same logistical mindset.

If you insist to me that there are radical Islamics, and not radical Christians, then I would ask that you remember only a half century from today the Ku Klux Klan's prominence was a constant variable in the southern United States, as well as the IRA in Britain, the LRA in Uganda, the Maronites of Lebanon, and the NLFT of India. (And don't get me started on those #NeverIslam boneheads.)

Quite frankly, I'm growing unendingly bored with the anti-Muslim tirades of a Presidential candidate who inherently feeds off bad press. If this was an issue of Muslim immigrants, then perhaps border tightening would be a conversation to be had, in relation to the Orlando shooting. But the fact of the matter is that all our recent massacres, Orlando, San Bernardino, Ft. Hood, can all be traced back to a theme of homegrown terrorism.

What this means, quite simply, is that this problem cannot be fixed through the same yarbled up jabber Donald Trump spouts to gain media focus, or the repetitive left-wing pandering from the establishment candidate Hillary Clinton.

That's correct, my liberal friends, this problem will not be fixed with gun control.

The logic seems sound enough, right? A man has a gun, and in the United States you can buy guns easily, therefore the man had the gun because it is easy to buy guns in the United States. A+B=C. Right? Right? Except it is, of course, not that simple. The fact is, this man had connections with the Islamic State, an international terrorist organization with the sole intention of disrupting the foundation of western culture. There is no reality where the Islamic State or any person subjected to their ideologies will let a background check, or even a full-scale ban on weapons, stand between them and their target.

Islamophobia and gun control are two very simplified answers to a very complicated problem, and they are both dead wrong.

And I submit that in this time of horrid crisis, a strong nation of people, a well-fastened community of free individuals, would band together against a clearly common enemy.

Instead, the right pandered to the same political dialogue against Barack Obama's lack of reference to ISIL as "radical Islam," and the left stormed out of a moment of silence because of a vote of gun laws! Honestly, these people's mothers need to slam their heads together like a Loony Toons episode. It is the same circular flow of political banter and overcomplicated jargon to try and keep it over their constituent's heads.

Well, it isn't over any of your heads.

The real issue is that fifty people died, but that is less important to your average congressman than their re-election bid (which has a 97% turn over rate, so who wants anything to change, anyways?). But this isn't a "let's have a political revolution" speech. No, no, this issue requires a great deal of pragmatism.

So, here is my advice to the people; make as much noise as you possibly can. Go out and create, and build, and let your voice be heard. Why, you may ask? Well, rhetorical voice that I've spawned to add concrete to my argument, I will tell you why.

The fact of the matter is, the ruling voices will prevail in these arguments. The reason arguments that the majority of people tend to disagree with end up with the most attention is not solely because they're entertaining, but also because they are louder. The Democratic style of rule has always been a projection of the mass's viewpoints atop political dialogue. The issue, though, lies in that people no longer want to make their voices heard, and instead, that responsibility is left to those who care less for this country's being and future, and more for their own gain.

That is why it is every person's responsibility to create all that they can at every possible turn. You should be building with one hand, and learning with another at all times.

Now, again, that sounds very idealistic, but in truth it isn't. Because the issue of mass violence is an issue of people, and only the people can decide how it is to be solved. If you sit behind the monitory of a computer, and muffle under your breath words of distaste at policy decisions, but remain quietly comfortable behind that digital wall, as opposed to becoming a variable in the political chaos, (and yes, it's a disgusting heap of chaos) then you are doing no more than any smug political head with their thumbs up their rectums.

I urge you to try to make a difference, dearest reader, because at the core of this muddled up masterpiece of a country, we have the controlling variable of responsibility. Living in a free land, each person is born with the culpability of running it, and to do so we must act and create and build. There is no other way to overcome any issue which frequents America's home TVs.

It cannot start on Capitol Hill, it cannot start in New York, or at any News Headquarters, it has to start in the home of the American citizen.

The nature of the issue is the reason both the Right and the Left have it's answer completely wrong. Banning guns will not fix it, more guns will not fix it, because the affair is rooted in the workings of people. And the minds of people are not black or white, but an unwaveringly consistent grey. The only way to fix this very grey issue is through the minds of those precise people.

Thank you,
Love Chris.

"There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too." -Kurt Vonnegut