"O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!"

Oh, how I wish that those words still rang true today, but I cannot sit here and write without feeling a deep, disgusting amount of shame for this nation that I call home. Last week, well-known comedian Kathy Griffin posted a photo of her holding up a bloodied, severed head prop of Donald Trump. Her distaste for our current president has always been evident, but the picture only furthered her display of hatred and mockery.

For a nation of people who fight so valiantly for human rights (I mean, seriously, have you seen how passionately people march in the streets for what they "deserve?"), we sure don't seem to value the lives of those whom we disagree with. Donald Trump is the President of the United States. Like him or not, he is the man leading our country, and just like every other person living on this planet, he is human - faulty and imperfect, but human nonetheless. He holds questionable beliefs and makes plenty of mistakes, but don't we all? The level of respect he deserves as a human life should not be jeopardized simply because he doesn't prioritize climate change or women's healthcare privileges.

This isn't about Kathy Griffin. This isn't about Republicans versus Democrats. This isn't even about politics or Donald Trump and his family. This is about a country that seems to be increasingly okay with dehumanizing those who hold beliefs that contrast ours. We want our opinions to be known, so we hire someone to take pictures of us looking smugly at the camera while gripping fake hair on a head that is meant to resemble the PRESIDENT of the United States.

We take to Twitter to mock an 11-year-old boy who is growing up in a country full of disrespect, distrust, and hatred. It was never appropriate when it happened to Obama, so why has it become normal now? I don't care what political party you cling to; the degrading of human life will never be okay in any situation, regardless of the person.

People have asked why this recent controversy is such a big deal, and I can only shake my head and reword their question back to them: how is it NOT a big deal? How much longer will it take before this country's abuse of free speech escalates into irreparable violence and death? You say it won't happen, but really, what's stopping it?

Read the news. Create a Twitter account. Listen to the radio. Educate yourself on this nation you call home, because Kathy Griffin's act of hate isn't the first and certainly not the last. The lines between Republicans and Democrats are blurring into one big group of people who aren't afraid to fight their brothers and sisters. Americans care so much about themselves that they have reached the point where they don't even know how to care anymore.

Our purple mountains are losing their majesty. Our blue spacious skies are filling with angry protest signs and clenched fists. The brotherhood has disappeared. Kathy Griffin is the new America, and we should be afraid.