With the utmost respect

MIAMI – With the utmost respect for the victims and their loved ones, I am forced to address this complex and controversial issue regarding weapons, hate, and the division we have here, right now, in our country. The obligation is a moral one with myself.

To look the other way, as many do, would be a very great lack of awareness on my part. To think that this happened in another state, another city, another neighborhood, or just around the another corner, does not exclude me from what we are living. Nor am I exempt because they are of other nationalities, or of another color, or of another political or religious thought or idea. This is my country, these are my people, and I am ashamed of what we have come to.

I could have drawn a bouquet of flowers, a firearm with a headline that said, “No to Weapons” or “Stop Violence” or “Let’s Do Something”, but I wanted to illustrate in this latest Graphite ‘n Ink the violence that is so unnecessary, the contagious hatred that spreads like cancer … I wanted to represent what we do not want to see, and not to dishonor or mock those affected by it, but to remind all of us that we are all complicit in these murders, these terrorist acts …

We are complicit if we forget this tragedy when choosing our candidates at the moment we have to vote for our destiny, for our people, for our country, and for the future of our children.

We are complicit if we stay home on Election Day. We are complicit if we choose poorly who will represent us tomorrow and especially when we know that there is only hatred in their hearts.

Perhaps today we do not even know the names of the victims of the last terrorist attack, but tomorrow it may be someone very close to us — a father, a son, a friend, or perhaps even oneself … It is time to take responsibility. Violence not only belongs to those who exercise it, but also to those who allow it.