If you’ve been on any type of social media this summer you’ve seen the repeated hashtag #PrayFor a person or place. You may have seen #PrayForOrlando, #PrayForNice, #PrayForAltonSterling, and it’s unfortunate to say but many many more. It seemed as the days went on there was a new hashtag sending out prayers, but a new tragedy replacing yesterday’s commotion.
Although there were many terrible tragedies this summer, I’m going to recap some of them that got a lot of social media attention this summer.
5.) #PrayForAltonSterling
On Jul. 5 2016, Alton Sterling, 37, lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was selling CDs outside a local convenient store when he was soon pinned down by the police. The police did receive a call about a man with a gun in the area and assumed it was Sterling. He was shot several times in the chest and back while he was pinned down by officers. Sterling was a father of five. This not only left the U.S in shock, but worldwide his story was trending.
4.) #PrayForTurkey
On June 28 2016, 3 men involved with ISIS, or now known as ISIL, attacked at Turkey’s Istanbul National Airport. They open fired into the crowd and set off bombs as security tried to stop them. About 42 people died and 239 were injured. This brought the world together and showed how ISIL has no affiliation with the religion of Islam because they attacked in an Islamic country killing hundreds of Muslims.
3.) #PrayForNice
On July 14 2016, during the Bastille Day parade in Nice, France, a truck plowed into the crowd killing about 77 people. Leaders of countries around the world like Canada, The United States, India, China, South Korea, and more showed their solidarity with France. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack two days after it happened.
2.) #PrayForOrlando
Omar Mateen went into Pulse, a gay nightclub on June 12 2016 and killed 49 people and wounded 53. This is now known as the deadliest mass shooting and one of the worst attacks on U.S soil. After a three hour stand-off with OPD, he was shot by one of the officers.
1.) #PrayForTheWorld
This was a very common hashtag people would see after any tragedy. It was very common to see people saying the entire world needs prayers rather than just a couple countries, cities, or people. It was very dissapointing to see how often this hashtag came up from accounts of all types of people whether they were black, white, liberal, conservative, Muslim, etc.
Unfortunately there were many many more tragedies than these this summer that not even some news channels have covered. Hopefully, there will be more love and peace around the world this fall.
