Fifty years ago, America was on the brink of revolutionary change as the civil rights movement reached its peak. And though a great deal of people marched through their streets in demand of equal treatment between blacks and whites, just as many set out to argue in favor of a separate-but-equal society. The following decade would be defined by a racial tension so great it seemed even the law was helpless or simply unwilling to find a solution to the issue. It would take years for time to diffuse the situation, though it could only do so to a certain extent. As a nation, we are supposed to be able to reflect on the past and learn from our mistakes, using the knowledge from those experiences to band together and prevent such catastrophes from repeating themselves. As the deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana as well as the murder of several police officers in Dallas clearly show, our country is quickly devolving back into a period of conflict instigated by racial discrimination.

It’s a common saying that there are two sides to every story. While in many cases this is true, the events that took place in Louisiana and Dallas this past week were rather straightforward. There is sufficient video evidence and plenty of eyewitness accounts to show that both were instances of senseless violence, instigated, at least partially, by some racial tension. And though it is easy to take a side and point blame at one particular group for their individual faults, or to say that if this person had just done so and so, then all of this could have been avoided, doing so doesn't get us anywhere. In reality, there is no clear-cut right or wrong side on these kinds of issues, because each side is right in some ways and wrong in others, depending on how you perceive it all. All that is certain is that some flaw in the way we operate as a society has allowed for the tragic deaths of several innocent people, a fact that should be motivation enough for us to work towards fixing the problem.

So what can we do to make sure things like this don’t happen? In all honesty, there is no simple solution, as much as we would all like there to be. What’s easier is to select the things we’re doing wrong, and take care of them one at a time. We should know that using violence never creates anything but more violence and distrust. Black protesters and white officers were peacefully chatting with one another and taking pictures in Dallas minutes before a sniper gunned down several innocent white policemen as revenge for the murder of an innocent black man. This type of senseless action can do nothing but give police more of a reason to feel anxious around their suspects. On another note, enough incidents of police brutality have occurred for us to realize that whatever system allowed these few unqualified individuals to slip by needs to be revisited. Even a single person willing to abuse their authority as an officer can cause a major uproar, giving all cops a bad name as a result. But perhaps most importantly is that we, as a whole, need to stop assuming things about individuals or ideas that we don’t understand. Just because a person is of a certain race doesn’t mean we need to assume, upon seeing them, that they are going to act certain way. Just because a handful of cops have acted recklessly certainly doesn’t mean we should assume that every cop is bad. If somebody uses #blacklivesmatter or #bluelivesmatter at the end of a tweet, that doesn’t mean they are automatically against cops or against blacks, because the message of both movements can easily coexist. Overall, it is important to understand that no matter our differences, we can put them aside to focus on a singular goal that we all share. As humans, we long for a world free of conflict and violence, one in which we can go about our lives without the fear of being attacked because of our race or our beliefs. We do have the power to reach that goal; it’s just a matter of stepping back and focusing on the individual issues that are keeping us from real peace.