Two days after the Boston Bombings, former Florida Congressmen, Allen West, ran an ad on Facebook expressing his condolences for the people of Boston. While it’s safe to assume West truly meant his comment, a media storm erupted over the ad, arguing that the ad was made only for political gain and that he should be a shame for politicizing a tragedy.

This got me thinking…how else was West suppose to share his opinion or condolences on the issue, without, ya know, talking about it? Apparently I was not the only one confused.

The website Gawker, on July 20, 2012, points out that while we are quick to shut down people we think are politicizing a tragedy, we often misunderstand what the phrase really means. And it’s harming the way we discuss tragedies in our country and attempt to solve them.

“I think politicization means tragedies are used to further a political purpose or are used as a way for politicians to try to get people to agree with them,” junior Madeline Fines said.

Politicization, or the use of tragedies to garner solutions, can be a powerful tool to enact change in our system, however it’s been hijacked by self interested politicians and sensational journalism. Along with the fact that my generation is the most uneducated when it comes to the government or current events,  we rush to label all politicization negative.

“I think that politicians make a huge deal about tragedies, for example the shooting in DC,” senior Sarah Spore said. “They use these tragedies as ammunition for their stance on the topic or law, which can sometimes come off as negative and instead of doing anything to solve the issue, they just use it for themselves.”

The main issues of misusing politicization is done by politicians looking to get ahead in the polls and stores confusing politicization with capitalization. Along with that, we also rush to establish gain from a tragedy, as seen in the Patriot Act after 9/11.

“I think politicizing tragedies can be positive in that it could be beneficial to try to prevent some things from happening again,” junior Zach Tolar said. “But I also view it in a negative light because it tries to bring something bigger than politics onto that level.”

Yet, tragedy after tragedy sparks the issue of gun control, and time after time the pressure  to reform dies down after months of gridlock and poor politicization. Our lack of compromise has driven us to a standstill. When we ignore the power of effective politicization we rob ourselves of the opportunity to change the circumstances which caused the issue in the first place.

“When it comes down to issues like gun control, the problem isn’t the gun-it’s the people,”  Tolar said. “That really can’t be fixed easily either…Or maybe at all.”

National tragedies will happen, we won’t be able to prevent them all. But in our collective grief, we have the opportunity to ask ourselves as a nation, what can we do to make ourselves better? Because after all we are the ones who can initiate change in this world, but it all starts with a conversation.