I feel that as a society we are always striving to move forward and make our world a better place than it was the year before, hell even better than it was last week. And while we are undoubtedly progressing, there are areas in which we have greatly regressed. Areas that should be prioritized when the betterment of society is in mind. Instead of working to develop a safer place to live in, we inhabitants of this world seem to be getting more and more violent with each passing day.

Why? To bring it down to the simplest of terms, I believe it is fear and hate. When you hate something your instinct is to remove it from your life, sometimes by any means necessary. And when it comes to fear, well that is enhanced by stereotypes, misunderstanding, and quite frankly the desire to live. People respond to situations based on an availability heuristic and this results in patterns. According to an ongoing study done by The Washington Post, the number of people fatally shot by the police is up by 26 in the first six months of this year in comparison to the first six months of 2015, 491 this year and 465 in 2015. Whereas 20 police officers were fatally shot in the line of duty in the first six months of this year in comparison to 16 during the first six months of 2015. As hard as it may be to believe, we are all human.

It saddens me that I can't go to a concert or festival without wondering if I'm gonna part of a shooting or a bomb going off, but you can't stop living life... even if it gets a little hectic. This year there have been 231 mass shootings according to massshootingtracker.com, most notably recent the peaceful protest against police brutality in Dallas. 5 officers were killed and 7 were injured as well as two civilians.

This attack reaffirmed the mindset that many seem to be embodying of "them vs. us". Supporting the black lives matter movement does not mean anti blue and support for the police does not mean anti black. Contrary to popular belief, you can support black and blue and not be a hypocrite.

The actions of one do not represent the thoughts of all, but the thoughts of one can ignite actions needed to be seen by all.