On Saturday, Oct. 27, a mass shooting was committed at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Penn. Eleven Jewish people were killed in cold blood by an anti-Semitic terrorist as they worshipped. I am from Pittsburgh and grew up in this community, only six blocks from the synagogue in question; I have even attended several services there with some of my Jewish friends. The Jewish community in Squirrel Hill is incredibly welcoming and kind to any and all, and for this to have happened is appalling. There is no reason for the violence and there is no understanding as to why it happened; we can only deal with the aftermath, which brings me to the purpose of this article: our President responded to this atrocity in an entirely unsatisfactory way.
Trump’s immediate comment on the shooting was to condemn it as an “evil anti-Semitic attack,” and “an assault on humanity.” However, he did not leave it at that as he should have and felt the need to provide the follow-up of, “If there was an armed guard inside the temple, they would have been able to stop him.”
While this is not a surprising comment considering Trump’s past rhetoric surrounding gun violence, it is the wrong comment and shows a sincere lack of empathy. To say that an armed guard would have stopped him is to say that there should have been an armed guard present, and by extension the victims are responsible for the fact that there was not one.
The fact of the matter is that the shooter is an evil human being. He had a plan to kill as many Jews as possible, and no one could have possibly known that he was going to do that. To say that a community should be responsible for being prepared whenever tragedy strikes, and that it is their fault if they are not, is ludicrous and insensitive. Many community members just lost family and friends, as well as their sense of safety living their daily lives, and telling them it was preventable is not going to help their grief.
The appropriate response, in my opinion as a member of that community, is exactly what it has been from the community. The Jewish community came together to support the families and friends of the victims. The Muslim community also showed support through raising over $200,000 as of Wednesday for the families of victims to pay for funeral proceedings.
A leader of the Muslim community gave a speech urging the Jewish community to reach out if they need anything at all. Specifically, he stated that if they need people standing outside of their services, they will be there; even if they need someone to go shopping with them so that they feel safe, they will be there. This is the necessary response after a tragedy. Everyone who cares about the people involved should rally around them and show them love, not blame them.
