Last Monday we celebrated the Fourth of July, but in the midst of today’s society and the modern casualties the public has familiarized – take a look around, are we truly celebrating independence?

This time last year the United States celebrated a historical moment. On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court finally ruled a decision to broaden the definition of matrimony country-wide, allowing same-sex marriage in all 50 states—a ban long overdue to break. Despite the diversity in this country and the many differing religious beliefs, whether you support homosexuality or not, in the words of President Barack Obama, the ruling was a true “victory for America.”

This ruling was among the some of the most historical, landmark decisions in the U.S., right up there with Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, which both banned laws on racial segregation. These cases resulted in what seemed to be an everlasting fight to end inequality and oppression of racial minorities in America who have long suffered merely because they were perceived as “different.”

The European quest for what was desired to be “the new world,” welcoming a melting pot of all ethnicities, heritages and religious beliefs, actually became quite the opposite. Why it is that someone cannot view a specific religious belief without an opposing viewpoint from another? Why is it that if people disagree with what you believe in, they are quick to say you are wrong or you have been “misinformed?”

What makes your opinion so much better than everyone else’s? Regardless of what you’ve been taught in your lifetime and the following of people that agree with you—news flash—there are seven billion people in the world and an estimated 4,200 different religions practiced worldwide. So you mean to tell me what your family/friends/educators/mentors have specifically taught you is always the right thing to believe? It seems a bit selfish.

People flock to the United States to live and raise their families for the simple luxury of not only better opportunities, but to have the First Amendment and the freedom it entails—freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and especially, freedom of religion. Yet people wish to live and prosper in the U.S and insist their beliefs are the only ones worth listening to. How contradictory? They want to reserve the right to exercise their own personal beliefs yet don’t believe in opposing views—or even care to listen.

This very ideology roots back to the entire reason why it took up until year 2015 to enact something as simple as letting people love one another. Something that was not allowed because some people were taught it is “wrong.” Something that many people STILL believe is "wrong." All originating from someone else saying it was wrong.

Another news flash—gay people didn’t just drop out of the sky in recent years. Nope. The natural feeling of sexual attraction and love for the same sex as yourself has been around since the beginning of humanity. It was humanity itself that labeled who we should love and who we shouldn’t. This is the same reason there has been a racial divide since the beginning—a social construction meant to divide a species that is in no way biologically or internally different.

Though the passing of the same-sex marriage bill last year was a landmark decision that will go down in history forever, it is still clear that an oppressed group of people remain marginalized and in a continuous fight for their own personal independence.

The violent massacre that occurred in Orlando on June12 happened exactly one year after same-sex marriage was enacted and it just goes to show how something as simple as different opinions and forced religious teachings can result in the most hateful act in all of humanity—murder.

Regardless if this was labeled as an act of terror, a hate crime, or if it was just an act of a mentally ill monster—the bottom line is, historically, insisting one's opinions are greater than another's leads to nothing positive. Humankind literally prospered from learning from one another through education, reading, writing, communicating and learning from other people. That is exactly what makes a nation stand united. Implying your personal views with prejudice, hate and a closed-mind only leads to destruction of a community and a specific groups of people further oppressed. It allows no room for growth. As a united nation, we have come so far when it comes to fighting for freedom and independence, but we clearly still have a long journey ahead.

You don’t have to support something you disagree with, you don’t have to pretend to like it and you don’t even have to affiliate it in your personal life whatsoever. But at the end of the day, it is important to remember that we are all human and you are no greater than your fellow homo-sapiens.

Though we are not the same color, we all bleed the same color and though we do not all feel the same, we all bear the same feelings. Stand by your opinions and fight for what you believe is right, but always remember—choose love instead of hate.