How Could Shooting Happen? Just Read the Comments

It was shocking and saddening to read as events unfolded on Sunday, and I don't know that I was prepared to deal with it.

I'm not talking about the . I'm talking about the tone of the conversation that followed the articles that were posted.

In a time like this, people need healing, consolation and support. What they got was a continuation of people so entrenched in their own political and social beliefs that they couldn't take their eyes off of themselves to realize others were hurting around them.

Granted, there were a few of you who tried to remind people where the true focus belonged, but folks were already on a roll, calling each other "morons," "liberals," "gun nuts," and likely worse. Statements like this reflect people who find it easier to paint a stereotype of people they feel oppose their opinion than to actually understand them. It likely is how the gunman painted the worshipers on Sunday.

While I don't feel the shooter would have acted any differently if "he would have just gotten to know the Sikh religion," as such hate is so warping to the psyche, it's not too late to ask you all to do the same.

Politics will always exist, but put aside your own need to be understood, and try understanding someone else for a change.