How hard is it to try and be a decent person? To see someone you pass on the street simply as another human being and nothing more? To not willingly inflict pain, fear and violence on an innocent human being? To try and spread love and joy and not spread hate and violence? To lend a hand and help one another? To not blame an entire group because of the actions or beliefs of a few? To accept everyone, no matter their religion, beliefs, choices, or appearance?

I apologize for an entire paragraph consisting of questions but these and many more are racing through my mind after recent events in our country. I don’t understand all of the needless pain and violence that seems to be spreading like a disease here. Every day there are more shootings, more hate, more violence, and more fear. And I simply don’t understand.

We blame entire groups for these acts, Muslims, police officers, white people, black people. But you can’t blame the many for the acts of the few. And by separating people off into these “categories” we only further separate us when we all should just be seen as people; Americans, mothers, husbands, children, we are all the same.

Because a Muslim man shot and horrifically killed 49 people in an Orlando night club, people jump and say that all Muslims are bad. They don’t consider that the man was a radical, irrational, outlier. Two police officers shot and killed two black men this week. While many peacefully protest, trying to get their voices heard, others come to believe that all police officers are racist. And one upset and deranged man decided to shoot and kill those who are there to protect us. He didn’t care that there were children there. He didn’t care that those officers were good people or that they would leave behind family grieving such a tremendous loss. My father is a police officer and I can't imagine going through what those families must be.

Reading about and watching news covering these tragedies always makes me incredibly mad. How could someone do this? Why would someone do this? What happened in Dallas and sadly many other places in our country’s and the world’s recent history is tragic and senseless. I simply can’t understand it. I try to make sense of these events. I try to see how a person can justify doing something so horrific but I can’t. I personally can’t imagine intentionally killing an animal without feeling guilt. How can a person live with himself after having wreaked so much terror and destruction? I know that these people aren't very rational but it’s unfathomable to me. I understand that these people are very few and far between, thank God, but they don’t seem to be all of the problem.

I’ve been taught and raised at home, school, and church to treat others with respect. To treat everyone the same. To help those in need. To learn about other cultures and ways of life so that I can try and understand them. All of that makes sense doesn’t it? Shouldn’t it?

But there are people out there who only exacerbate the problems the radicals cause. Who are ignorant and wish to remain so. Who judge a person for being the least bit different than them. Who turn a blind eye to those in need. Who have their small minded views and who choose to not change them. These are the people that stir up the anger, resentment, and mistrust in our country. These are the people that want to punish a race, a group, or a religion because they aren’t the same as them. The people who, sorry to bring politics into this, would vote for a intolerant monster of a man like Donald Trump. And sadly, many of these people claim to be Christian. This makes me even angrier. A Christian is supposed to make people associate Christianity with love, benevolence, and acceptance. Instead they corrupt our religion and cause people to associate us with hate, ignorance, and intolerance.

I know that we sadly can’t always prevent people from committing terrible acts like those in Orlando and Dallas, but what we need to do is to understand that our country

is a melting pot. There are hundreds of religions, races, and cultures here and that’s part of what makes our country great. We need to try to understand or at least to respect those differences. Because if we continue having all of this mistrust and anger towards one another, it will only serve to further weaken us. And our country and the people in it will continue to be torn apart.