I called El Paso, Texas my home for nearly 12 years. I visited Cielo Vista Mall as a child with my family. The pet store was my favorite attraction. I got lost for the first time there. I was also punched in the stomach for the first time there—it was my brother, overcome with excitement or what have you, as we made our way to the pet store.

When I read the news of the shooting, my heart sank yet again. My family personally knew one of the lives the killer claimed—a woman who stopped at WalMart on her way to pick up her daughter form the airport.

A quote from one of my favorite thinkers comes to mind:

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

— J. Krishnamurti

There is sickness in our society—in all of us. Indeed, no human is without fault. And when it comes to acts of violence, such as El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, we can refuse to become adjusted to them—refuse them with all our might and choose not to respond in kind.

Worth writing down