Sixteen years have passed since the 9/11 attacks in NYC, and as much as I see hope for this country, I still see terror. Terror not from “foreigners” and “aliens” , but terror stemming from the very people within this country.

For the first reading in one of my classes I was required to read the Dred Scott case in its entirety which I'm sure everyone should be familiar with. This case took place exactly 160 years ago, and it was disturbing to read how the court tried to justify that a black man can have rights according to the constitution and according to their state, but they cannot be a citizen of the United States. The assumption was made during this case that “‘citizens’ and ‘people of the united states’ are synonymous terms, and mean the same thing. Yet, they claim that it did not include African Americans nor “aliens”, unless naturalized. To summarize, basically the writer is saying, "oh, the constitution nor the declaration of independence ever specify who 'citizens' are, and since we bought/sold those other people, they're technically objects and not real people."

So what's the point? Why do I mention this?

This important because it illustrates how the history of racism, the pervasiveness of it in one group of men was able to create a false assumption and belief in an entire nation. I believed that this country were capable of ridding racism, but we only seem to be falling backwards. At a time when we commemorate the lives of fallen heroes and innocent lives, we should be hopeful for the future. Yet, it doesn't seem so.

The election of Trump was disappointing enough, but how the "people of the United States" reacted was even more so. There were more divisions created, and there was an eruption of loud racism and discrimination, anti-immigration, homophobia, and just plain xenophobia.

Yes, terror is rampant in this world. Yes, there are increasing amounts of refugees around the world. Yes, war does exist and is happening. And yes, these are problems that need to be fixed. But the hatred that is infecting this country is what I see as the greater problem. The allegory of sin fits so perfectly for this story.

Sin causes human beings to fall short. In a religious context, sin is what blocks us from a relationship from God/gods, or what blocks us from the ideal way of life. In that sense, racism is Once a sin becomes a habit, it's hard to overcome. Some may become to attached to their sin that they fear what life would become if let go. And for many people in this country there is a fear of the unknown, a fear of demographic and a change of status quo; they're afraid to lose power.

Just as the whole world watched in shock as the towers fell, the world is again watching as America falls. As the hate unfolds through crime, brutality, and even murder, we see America suffering profoundly from its original sin: Racism.