Stephen Colbert is well known as not only an uproarious comic and social commentator, but an active churchgoer who taught Sunday school at his New Jersey Catholic church. So his response, on last night’s Late Show, to Sunday’s horrifying church shooting in Sutherland Springs was unsurprisingly emotional. But it was also free of despair.
Of this brutal mass shooting, so hard on the heels of last month’s massacre in Las Vegas, Colbert said, “No one does anything. And that seems insane. And it can make you feel hopeless. Now, I don’t know what to do but I know hopelessness is not the answer. You cannot give up in the face of evil.” Such hopelessness, Colbert continued, not only “goes against our nature – we want to fix things”; it perpetuates a cycle of violence and fear. “I actually think that there are some people out there, some truly evil people out there, who want you to feel powerless – just for a buck,” Colbert said. “Because if you feel powerless, you know what might make you feel powerful? A gun.”
So what can we do? Colbert’s advice is simple: “You can go vote. In 2018. Vote for someone who will do something.”
Watch:
[h/t TVLine]