I remember when I was younger, America was a place where everyone from all over the world wanted to be. We were a likable country, even if we did butt into other country's businesses at times. Now it's 2016, and things have definitely changed and not for the better.
One great thing about America is that we are so diverse in our backgrounds, experiences and opinions. It's gotten to the point where people can't even express their opinions anymore without someone being offended. People are scared to say what's on their mind. Companies have to watch every little thing they do, especially in advertisement, so that people don't boycott their brand. We can't make videos now without having to take them back down because it shows a lack of diversity and someone will be offended. We can't say Merry Christmas without someone complaining that they don't celebrate it. We can't raise a rainbow flag without someone criticizing the people involved. What ever happened to when you knew all of your neighbors and we said hi and waved to everyone we passed? Now, we just honk and give people the middle finger likes it's second nature. But more importantly, we kill like it is second nature.
We have many different type of people in this world, each with a different mindset. I remember when I was younger, we were taught to love each other's unique characteristics. Now, if you're different, your bullied or even shot.
On social media, you see 'Black Lives Matter' and 'Blue Lives Matter' but whenever someone puts 'All Lives Matter,' we make it such a big issue because it's "taking away the attention of the protection of a certain race or type of person." No. Any time someone is killed, whether it's by a cop, an Asian, a white person, a black person, a Hispanic person, any person, it's not just a "black" person that dies or a "white" person that dies. It's a human that dies. We are all a part of this human race that has many different sub-categories of race, but we are all known as the human race.
I'm tired of people seeing one action and then stereotyping that type of people all together. I see both sides of each shooting, and I am not being biased. Racial profiling is a very hot topic and is very wrong, for all races. If someone gets pulled over for a tail light out, every race should be treated the same in terms of the consequences. On the other side of the spectrum, for every one bad cop, there are thousands of good ones. They are the ones you call when you need help, so why are we attacking them? First of all, violence with violence is never the answer. Do you guys see where our country is at? It doesn't look very positive in my opinion. These police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and so on spend each day saying goodbye to their family, putting their life in harms way to take care of us. Could you imagine if everyone had the same mentality as the people that save us every day? What if we all had the mindset to always help someone else in need? So many people are quick to talk about how we should act but never follow their own advice. So when you see an officer, or any emergency personnel for that matter, thank them! They do so much for us and a simple thank you is the least that we can do.
No matter what happens, you live in this country, and you should always be proud of that. If you don't like this country, then why are you here? Because it gives you a nice job, house and life? Fair enough. But if you are going to live in this country, I would expect you to honor it. If you see something on the news that you don't like, talk about it, peacefully. What is unacceptable is disrespecting our American flag. If you don't like America, you can leave, no one is holding you back. There are so many different ways to express your opinion in a positive way, but stomping on the flag or doing anything else inappropriately with it is not acceptable.
Clearly, I talked about a lot of different things in this article, but they all come together. The fact of the matter is, our country has its ups and downs. Majority of our downfalls are when we don't take care of one another and go out to harm another. Take time to get to know people that cross your paths, go out of your way to help another in need, even if it's the smallest task. Many of us are going to have children one day. Do you want your child to be bullied or killed because of their race, or their background, or their uniqueness? On the other hand, do you want them to be the bully or the shooter? This is an issue that everyone agrees needs to be fixed, but no one knows where to start. The first step is changing your mentality and growing together with those different than you.
