Just before noon yesterday, I walked out of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum determined to return soon to explore the exhibits that tell the tale of a particularly sad and horrific time of human history.

Just after noon yesterday, a man walked in to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and opened gunfire, killing Stephen Tyrone Johns and gripping us all in fear.

I’ll admit, my first thoughts as the news came in were of dread and despair: I had just left the Museum an hour before the shooting, and all I could remember was the massive groups of children there, learning and playing and interacting. And I thought of them, reading and hearing about the atrocities of the past while witnessing other atrocities right there, in their present.

My next thoughts were of sadness: a child lost a father, a family lost a loved one, the world lost a good man because of the hatred of another. In a solemn place created to honor the memory of those who suffered from the hatred of others, hate had once more claimed a casualty.

My next, and most overpowering emotion, was of fear: the selfish fear that had I left less than hour later, I could have been caught in the tragedy; the communal fear that this kind of unpredictable act of violence could happen at any time; the irrational fear that this cycle of violence could never be broken.

Fear.

It was only when, later in the day, I looked at the two tickets in my pocket for a return visit to the Museum that I realized that by succumbing to this fear, I was falling prey to the exact emotions that the gunman wanted us to feel. The gunman wanted to disrupt a place where visitors go to confront hatred and remember to prevent violence, and turn it into a place of apprehension and nervous fear.

I realized that instead of putting away my tickets and waiting for my psyche to settle from this horrific tragedy, I needed to remind myself that the Holocaust Memorial Museum exists for that exact reason: for us to confront horrors and tragedy to reflect on how we can learn to never let them happen again.

I am going to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum this weekend. I’m going to go there to remember the lives that were lost in the Holocaust, remember the life of Stephen Tyrone Johns that was lost in yesterday’s shooting, and remember the lives of people around the world that are crippled by fear after tragedy. If you’re in DC, I’d love for you to join me.

(Photo by Jonathan Newton, The Washington Post)