We all need remedial kindergarten; kindergarten, where we were taught to share and to treat others the way we want to be treated. The kindergarten that taught us to all be friends.

It's sad, how this country was supposed to a place where people could get away from violence; a country made up of people who escaped their difficult situation before them. And yet, we've had a million and one double standards along the way. They say freedom, and then turn around and hate everyone who is different. Instead of listening to each other's stories, people separate themselves into homogenous groups.

This wasn't how it's supposed to be. How can there be so many incidents of violence against different groups if, in younger years, we were taught kindness and togetherness. Why do adults mess with these children and change their pure, kind hearts to be like theirs? If everyone went back to kindergarten, they'd lose track of how many recesses we'd lose. It wasn't supposed to be like this. There was supposed to be another way.

A human life is a human life. Once it's gone, it's gone. And too many people see others as something expendable. Because other lives walking down the street don't count, or something. The word sonder refers to the realization that every person one runs into has a life as complicated as their own. We need more sonder in this world. We need stories to be told, and we need those stories to be genuinely listened to, taken in and understood beyond a superficial level. With stories comes understanding, and with understanding comes friendship, and with friendship comes the breaking down of barriers. And with the breaking down of barriers comes freedom.

What if we never grew up? What if we kept that childhood trust and acceptance? While children can and do have their own problems with separating into groups and conflicts with different groups, it's only because they were taught that from adults. Hate is not innate.