“Above all, we must put others before us and keep others in our mind constantly: the self must be place last. All our doings and thinking must be motivated by compassion for others. The way to acquire this kind of outlook is that we must accept the simple fact that whatever we desire is also desired by others. Every being wants happiness, not suffering. If we adopt a self-centered approach to life by which we attempt to use others for our own self-interest, we might be able to gain temporary benefit, but in the long run, we will not succeed in achieving even our personal happiness, and hope for the next life is out of the question”

- Dalai Lama

We will rise up above this national tragedy.

While it was tragic and a lot of things have to be learned and internalized, let’s also realize that every country screws up big time at one time or another. China had melamin deaths, Tienanmen, etc.. The US has had its massacres too that police could not prevent. So have Israel, France, Mexico—everyone. We are not an exception.

Let’s not beat ourselves up so much that we do lose hope. The thing to do is to make sure it does not happen again. We have too many things going for us as a people. We will learn and we will move on to do better things that will give us a collective sense of pride.