With the height of the American political climate, the inclusion of public violence has been my last straw when it comes to the constant public debates our society loves to have on social media. After the recent Florida tragedy, the amount of social media posts pointing fingers at one political party or the other was absolutely sickening to see. Our current society is so focused on being right and proving each other wrong that we miss the true problem our society lacks: empathy.

Did you know that several politicians were paid anywhere between $5 million and $8 million by the NRA to tweet their condolences after the shooting? Did you know that saying every shooter has "a mental illness" when in fact they were sane is degrading to the real people who actually suffer daily from mental illnesses?

This is not being empathetic to the victims of these sorts of tragedies. Not every criminal is mentally ill and paying politicians to draw the attention away from the weapons of mass destruction is not how we as a society should solve these problems. Empathy means we care for one another and feel their pain as they do. Yes, I am a proud liberal American woman who is absolutely not blaming any political view for this issue -- I am blaming the significant excuses we all use, no matter who you work for or who you support, in order to forget the situations rather than doing something to make it better! I am sick and tired of this master narrative being a big part of our society. I am sick and tired of seeing school shootings being compared to the abortion debate and being labeled as "Liberal Agenda." This is not helping anyone! We need to empathize with those who have been oppressed and shut down into silence and we need to be a community of care for those who feel as though they have no voice to be heard. We need to empathize with the millions of Americans who are not the majority in these situations so they don't feel as small as society makes them out to be.

We need to stop pointing fingers and make a change or else everything we are proud to be in our American culture will be lost.

We need to stop being divided among trivial problems while the true believers of the American dream are being beaten down, denied access, and being told their voice never matters WHEN IT DOES!

This new political movement of constant and oppressing blame ever since the 2016 election is sickening to a young feminist girl who shouldn't have to define herself as a liberal or a feminist rather than just an American. Empathizing and feeling the pain of others shows us how humanity is supposed to work. It's okay to show emotions and it's okay to feel feelings, we're all human! I'm tired of being silenced and being told my human beliefs are nothing but hormones. My voice matters and my belief in empathizing with others matters just as every single person on this planet's voice matters. Stop using every tiny bit of political agenda to slide these tragedies under the table.