It's just a regular Monday afternoon, and you're lazily scrolling through your Facebook feed. Your friend just posted fifty Disney vacation pictures to her "Summer 2016!!!!" album. Your mom shared a recipe that claims to have added a "new twist" to lasagna that "every member of your family is sure to love!" A girl you graduated high school with just posted an announcement that she's engaged, and you're trying to figure out how she already has her life together. And then you see it. Someone posted an article about the upcoming presidential election, and you couldn't disagree with it more. Then you scroll on by, don't say a word, and don't look into the issue any further.

That's the problem. So many times we see an article, video, picture, or any other form of media that we don't agree with, but we stay silent. Rather than researching what we do and don't agree with to have an educated opinion on it, we continue to scroll through Facebook to find something we'd rather waste our time looking at because ignorance is bliss right? You fear that once you have an opinion about a current event that you might *gasp* offend somebody, or you just want to rely on other people that have similar views to you to, to handle the current crisis or election.

I've seen far too many people publicly claim that they know nothing about politics or current events and that they'll figure out where they stand once "this" or "that" happens. Wake up, America. Once "this" or "that" happens, the chance to get your voice heard is over. The decision has been made, and you've done nothing to contribute or fight against it.

And once the final verdict has been decided, the same people who didn't use their voice are typically the first to complain about the current state we live in. Some of the people complaining the most about the candidates for the 2016 Presidential Election are the same people who said they didn't vote in the primary election because "they would deal with it later" or "they didn't know where they stood yet." Excuse me? If you don't know where you stand, pick up a book or search the internet, and do your research.

We have men and women sacrificing their lives for this country to defend our freedom so that each and every one of us can have a voice, and you're just going to stay uninformed and silent? Quit caring if not everyone is going to agree with your stance. You can't please everyone. Quit saying politics and current events are boring. You don't seem to find them very boring once something you don't agree with has become the predominant choice or circumstance.

Each and every one of us have been given a voice. Use it. But make sure it's respectful and informed. We are entitled to our opinion, so it's about time we started forming one.