Once I figured out what I was going to write about this week, I started to jot down ideas, and I realized how hard it was to get my thoughts on to paper. I think there is so much to be said about this topic, and I just couldn't gather my ideas enough to get them written down in a way that made sense. The following is my attempt to find words and make something out of my jumbled thoughts.

Donald Trump's slogan: Make America Great Again. Again? Again means we had to have been great before, but were we? Was America ever great? Sure, we had money and power, but is that what makes a nation great? Many say that America was, and is, the world's largest superpower, so yes, you could say we're "great," but we're not.

Money, power and resources can't be all that it takes to be great, right? What about equality and basic human rights for all? I feel like that would tie into the equation somewhere. How could we have been great in the past, like Trump claims, when the government only legalized gay marriage a year ago? How could we have been great when women are still paid less than men for the same work? How could we have been great if people are still afraid of trans people because they think they're going to attack someone in a bathroom? How could we have been great when black people are still being treated like animals, just like how it was 150 years ago?

Racism and discrimination are still present, and it's not like all of these problems magically went away and are just reappearing now. No, these race, gender and equality issues have been present forever, so how could America, with all this death and hate, have been great in the past? It seems as if we have regressed, as if there is even more hatred today than there was previously, but, that could just be the ever-present media.

Death seems so much more common because it is everywhere we look. We see people dying because of things that they have no control over, such as skin color or sexual orientation. We see gay people being shot in mass numbers on what was supposed to be a fun night out. We see black people being profiled by police and automatically viewed as a suspicious person simply for being black, resulting in them being shot as well. If I were not white, and did not live in the town that I do, I would be terrified to leave my house. Yes, being a woman would probably lessen the chances of me being killed, but I would still be pretty darn scared.

Also, I obviously know this isn't as serious as death, but it still touches on the severe inequality in this nation: BIC's pink and purple pens for women. Many of you probably saw Ellen DeGeneres tear these pens apart, and I'm glad she did. It is so incredibly unfair that women are paid less than men for the same work, but have to pay more for the same goods like "women's pens," or "women's razors," or "women's deodorant." All of these products do the same thing for men as they do women, so why do women have to pay more?

I am fortunate enough to be able to say that I love my country, and feel safe here because of my skin color and who I am (even though it's impossible for me to love everything about this nation because so much is wrong and bad here). But too many people are not able to say, "I love my country," and because those people can't claim that, no one should be able to say, "I'm proud to be an American." No one should be proud to live in a place where a huge population of people do not feel safe and are not seen as equals.

America has yet to see greatness, and we sure have a long way to go, so if you're not a straight, white, male, you better brace yourself for the rest of the journey.

The world has too much to offer for us to sit around and hate each other, so we should all learn to put our differences aside, and enjoy being alive.