I don't live in Orlando, or Florida, or even in the South of the U.S., but like many other people I am shocked and saddened at the tragedy of the shootings at the Pulse nightclub. 

This kind of thing has happened often enough that when I'm in a public space, I look around and wonder about the people around me. I don't really think that "the terrorists will win" -- it's not that kind of conflict -- but I do think that we have all lost something. It may be our sense of security, or a feeling that we all used to share more commonality with each other.  I would say "we aren't in Kansas anymore," but nowadays, even Kansas isn't in Kansas.  

A definite loss is all the victims of shootings. They're gone and we can't get them back. We are poorer for the loss of the club-goers, for the loss of marathon runners, for the loss of movie-goers, for the loss of the tiny children, and less secure in our place in the world than we were before.  How did we get to this hard-hearted point? 

Tears, and tears, and tears.