When does the violence end?
Orlando, the City Beautiful, peaceful evening was shattered yesterday morning while we got smack in the gut by hate. If you live here you knew what was going on just minutes after it started. We spent the night and yesterday checking on loved ones and friends. 104 people went out to enjoy a nice weekend in Orlando, one was killed Friday night, 50 were killed yesterday, and 53 plus countless others are in some stage of healing, pain, or whatever. Another senseless act of violence by a deranged hateful jerk. I have no problems with people owning guns. I have a problem with the wrong people having access to guns. This is my hometown where I was raised not far from Pulse and where I chose to raise my kids. My high school is less than 5 minutes away from Pulse. The hospital that most were taken to was where I was born not 0.2 miles away from Pulse. Pulse used to be a Italian restaurant called Lorenzo's and wow did they have good pizza.
I don't want every baseball game to have moment of silence with the word "ORLANDO" on the jumbotron. I don't want the Tony's to dedicate their show to Orlando. I want the hate to stop and I want people to be tolerant. But yesterday I still had a son celebrating his 13th birthday so with a very heavy heart we still had to celebrate. I was very proud he chose after dinner to go to the candlelight vigil downtown at our Lake Eola.
I want the Federal Government to find these radical hate-filled people and keep them from having guns. We have to do better.
I call on parents to teach their kids how to love and be more tolerant.
The shooter's dad apologized yesterday. Not good enough, not from where I sit in my hometown. It's just a sad day in Orlando.