In light of recent events, I find it pertinent to bring attention to the subject, all lives matter.

Which is true, all lives do matter; but how can we as people, as a country, and as a world, claim that all lives matter when we can’t stand up for the injustice we watch individuals face? How can we say that we believe everyone is to be loved and cherished, and that every life is as precious as the next, when we watch our brothers and our sisters be slain because we cannot stand up for those who we do not know?

How can you feel satisfied with your "outpouring love and support," when all it consists of is an uneducated Facebook post claiming that you have the right to fear for your life as much as your neighbors, whose very existence has been shattered, beaten, and ignored for centuries? All because they look different than you and I, than us who experience a life that they can only dream of.

It should no longer be a matter of who you are, or what you do, that determines the amount of freedom and love you receive. It should no longer come down to one singular trait, that separates a nation. It should no longer come down to who will be next, or when will this end.

In order to pride ourselves in claiming that all lives matter, we must break down the stereotypes that we have created. Man was made to love, to protect - not to destroy, not to harm, and certainly not to kill innocent lives. People were not made to be accepted based on how they look, who they like, or what they do. People were made to reinvent the world, to create a new Eden, to find our voice.

All lives matter means more than just saying words. It means believing in what you’re preaching. It means black lives matter, Muslim lives matter, female lives matter, Christian lives matter, foreign lives matter, transgender lives matter, homosexual lives matter, male lives matter, heterosexual lives matter, nonbinary lives matter (etc) - it means that every single life, from the innermost cell to the outermost trait, matters.

We are no longer facing a simple act of injustice. We are facing an act of fear, an act of hate, and an act of someone’s inability to love - and that is far more real than anything we could have ever expected.

So break the walls. Shatter the gross standards society has created. Raise love, raise hope, and raise a new life; because all lives do matter, we just need to prove it.