There is nowhere left for us to hide.

Not at school, not at the movies, not at music festivals and not at churches. Sunday’s carnage that was unleashed by a gunman on parishioners at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, is just another example of how the evil has brazenly come out of the shadows with vengeance. It also has reared its treacherous head in recent years in Aurora, Newtown, Orlando, Charleston, Lafayette and Las Vegas and countless other places.

Let me be clear this isn’t an issue about guns in our country — as many always try to make it into any time bloodshed is spilled in our country. Those arguments have become stale and honestly so counter productive that is insulting to those people who have perished.

Regardless if you believe in more gun control or you a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, people are being murdered.

This also isn’t an issue about how to properly describe the individual who performed the evil act. Is he a psychopath a terrorist or a mass shooter? If he was a member of a radical sect of Islam then he is a terrorist but if he is white man then he is a mass shooter? It is all rather ridiculous and simply feeds a larger political argument that doesn’t help us resolve this. A killer is a killer.

The harsh reality is that four of the five deadliest mass public shootings in this country have taken place in the five years. There was only five weeks in between the shooting in Las Vegas and the one Sunday in Texas. That is 84 lives snuffed out by madmen with guns in just two incidents, and that doesn’t count all the murders that in larger cities that have become war zones like Chicago and New Orleans.

The issue is that the days of us ignoring what is happening to our fellow brothers and sisters, our communities, our society and our world has come to an end. For generations, we have willingly turned a blind eye to the evil that has been quietly stitched into the fabric of our society.

The horrors of bloody conflicts in war-torn Third World countries or the insurmountable violence from our country’s decaying inner cities was always something we could read about from afar in our suburban neighborhoods, and promptly discard that news as “not my problem” or “well that wouldn’t happen here.” That is no longer the case.

It wasn’t that long ago that we could distract ourselves with entertainment either by attending musical festivals or traveling by plane for a friends weekend or just by going to the local movie theater to watch the latest piece of escapist fare.

That doesn’t exist anymore.

It wasn’t that long ago that we could without hesitation drop off children off at school for the day and not worrying about their safety or sit peacefully with our loved ones for praise and worship at church on Sunday morning and not over our shoulders.

That doesn’t exist anymore.

The world right now needs all of us to step up and do what we haven’t done in a long time — help one another by reaching out and talking with each other. Instead of filling up our days with nonsense that isn’t making a difference in our lives or our society.

What filter should I use on my selfie that I desperately want people to like, or which waiver wire move I need to make for my fantasy football league team and of course the pointless and endless debates on Facebook.

Instead of wasting all that time why don’t we reach out with kindness to one another.

That family member or friend who is battling alcoholism or drug addiction … give them a call or check in on them. Ask them how they are doing or invite them over for dinner. And if they have been clean and sober for six years or six days then give them encouragement. It doesn’t take that much effort but it means the world to them.

Or that homeless man or woman who you see pushing a shopping cart around your neighborhood. Maybe ask to see if they need a ride to a shelter or maybe a hot meal or see if you can help out with your local church or food bank to help those in need that are less fortunate. It doesn’t take much effort but it will mean the world to them.

And if there is someone you know and love, and your gut tells you that he or she may be in some sort of trouble. That a vale of violence or despair has shrouded them then reach out to them with love and kindness. 

It doesn’t take much effort and it will mean the world to them and it could very well save their life.

I know that taking the time to choose to give a helping hand or lending a ear or any other form of compassionate act may seem minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

Those acts probably will not stop the next mass shooting from happening but what they could do, and hopefully will do, is bring people together and hopefully one day we no longer will have to watch our brothers and sisters be taken away from us by such pure evil. Because we can no longer hide from the evil, even if we wish could.

RAYMOND PARTSCH III is the managing editor of The Daily Iberian.