ONE OF US

To all Americans I say, the Orlando shooter was one of you. More collectively I say, he was one of us. Our default will be to deny this. No solution proceeds from labeling him a terrorist, Islamic, deranged, different from. The victims too were ones with us. An avoidance response might be, "but they were gay." No one elevates himself by refusing to lower a flag to half-mast, or by asserting, "they deserved it." Politicians and NRA will honour humanity's incomparable privilege of sharing life on this planet only when weapons of war cease to be considered intrinsic citizen rights and as essential to domestic security.