I don't know how to stop us from hating one another

but as today's shooting in Orlando illustrates with sickening force, it's clearly past time to address this problem.  When you hate someone for their race, their religion, their sexuality, or any other irrelevant characteristic, you kill a bit of them and a lot of yourself.  When that hatred or mental sickness that feeds on it leads you to action, those deaths become literal.

As I wrote in the headline, I don't claim to have answers, but it's time we make it a national priority to find some.  Controlling access to assault weapons strikes me as one good place to start.  Making the elimination of poverty a top priority is another.  Changing the way we speak so we stop making pejoratives of the characteristics of others is another important move, one that's cheap for us all.

We have to do something.  We are a country under attack by itself, and we must heal ourselves.

Whatever you believe, vote for candidates who will confront these issues.

My heart breaks for the people who died and who were injured in Orlando, but that heartbreak does them absolutely no good.  We must demand better of our government and of ourselves.