We Are All A Version of Omar Marteen

Omar Marteen, I care for you. I forgive you. I understand you. I fully hold you responsible for the lives lost and pain caused, but I know there’s blood on my hands too.

Most news outlets refuse to even mention his name, and I very well understand why. He committed a heinous crime. Heinous crime against a community. Heinous crime against humanity.

He’s called a terrorist, he’s called a homophobe, he’s called an extremist. He’s called many names with anger. And this anger is what caused this crime.

We collectively and unconsciously created him and now we blame him for our sins.

It’s the people that called him a terrorist that should be blamed. The people who marginalized him for where he came from although he was born in the land of freedom. People who may have called him out when he was a child because someone of his faith had committed a great crime. Society that taught him that he can’t wear his traditional clothing if he wanted to be accepted. The people that looked at him differently because he didn’t look like one of them, because his hair was different. His skin color was different. His eyes were different. Kids who didn’t invite him for their parties because he was not one of them, The people that blamed him for many crimes that he didn’t commit that it didn’t matter if he actually committed one.

He was a criminal long before he picked up his gun.

It’s the society that makes it difficult for many people to be themselves that should be blamed. Society that accepts the aggression of their men. Society that expects their men to swallow their feelings. Society that says men of certain cultures can’t be homosexual. Society that makes them believe that hate is more primal to some than love.

It’s the society that makes us believe that some lives matter more than the others. It’s the society that teaches us some people deserve basic human rights over others. It’s our politicians that wants to build walls, it’s our politicians who doesn’t want to open our boarders to people in need, it’s our preaches who tells us that some of us are going to hell for loving, it’s our teaches who don’t stand up for the bullied kids, they are the ones to blame.

Omar Marteen picked up that gun, but who handed it to him?

It’s the people that congratulate him still for taking these innocent lives. It’s the people who have nothing to say about this crime. It’s the news outlets around the world that censor a key word from their reporting. It’s the parents who turn off their TVs when this news comes on. ]

It’s those who fail to teach that we are all the same. We are all equal and each life must be valued and respected the same way.

As a society we manifest hate more than we realize. When we share a meme that says, “Give us Michael Jackson and we’ll give you Justin Bieber,” we manifest that hate. When we hope for Trump’s death rather than his defeat, we manifest that hate. Then we blame those who manifest that hate different from us.

If you can’t think of Omar Marteen, the murderer as an individual and not for his religion, ethnicity or sexuality… you’re manifesting that hate.

It’s the fact that we still identify these victims as gay, black, Latino, young: that’s the problem. Until we can identify people as humans and talk about our issues as a whole there’ll be more of these stories.

Until we stop identifying these criminals by their gender, religion, ethnicity or for anything other than their individual purposes, there will be more and more of these criminals. Until we learn to weep for every crime against humanity, there will be more crimes. If we can’t love a kid in Syria, if you can’t feel the pain of a mother in Sudan, there will still be bombs going off in Paris

We caused ourselves this pain. Us, who don’t know how to accept each other in our own community. Who share the same secrets, fears, hopes and dreams as each other.

It’s us, who are only Masc for Masc and no feminine. It’s us, who are only interested in whites/ blacks/ Arabs/ Latinos/ Asians. It’s us. Who say no whites/ blacks/ Arabs/ Latinos /Asians. It’s us who says no fats, no fems, no old or whatever that we say.

It’s us, who don’t know how to accept one another. It’s us who don’t know how to love one another. It’s us who couldn’t see the pain or anger until he held a gun in his hand. It’s us who create these monsters that eventually take over us. It’s us who need to love a little deeper. Love a little stronger. Love a little non-exclusively.

I’m Omar Marteen. You’re Omar Marteen. And as long as we don’t leann to love everybody on this planet equally, we are all a version of Omar Marteen.

So let’s talk about Omar Marteen.