Our world is one complicated place, and it just got more complicated and ruthless this last Thursday as President Trump ordered a 59 missile airstrike on a Syrian government airbase.

The attack was a clear message to the Syrian government, who is currently torturing its own people with bombs and chemical attacks, that these violent actions are not tolerated. The decision made by President Trump is unquestionably controversial.

Some view the attack as heroic and the best way to help Syrian people without actively bringing them inside our borders. Some ask "was this the best way to help Syrians or was it the easiest?" Many view the attack as a cop out from actually taking the time to set up programs for Syrians who are seeking refugee status.

Some view this attack as more beneficial than President Obama's attack a few years back, while others view it as just meaningless. Could these actions taken by President Trump, which were not presented to nor approved by Congress, be more detrimental to the U.S than Trump anticipated?

What about the terrorists living in our own country? Who says they won't attack us on our soil now considering we just inflicted violence on the group they support and align with.

Does bombing terrorists not count as a terroristic action?

Violence only encourages violence, just like hate only encourages hate. Fighting fire with fire is not going to put out any standing flames.

Regardless of what side you chose to take on this issue, we would be silly to divide because of it. It's not a secret that our country is divided right now, with tensions increasing daily. But isn't division how civil wars start? Isn't division the reason why Syria is in such a horrific state?

If we don't want to see our country in a mess like that, we need to start conversations about our government and affairs like this in order to understand one another. There are some people that we will never agree with but we must try to understand them for the overall greater good.

I encourage all Americans to hold a conversation with someone who views this attack in a different light than you do. Listen to them.

Believe it or not, it's actually possible to talk with someone about controversial topics without wanting to punch each other in the face.

These conversations need to happen in order to stay united. It's hard for citizen voices to be heard, especially when we are talking about war, but that doesn't mean our voices can't be used to combat dangers we face on a daily basis. We have the power to change issues like our rape culture, change how we treat each other, change poverty, change our education system; the list goes on.

I genuinely do believe that American's want to help those suffering in Syria, but the challenge we face is how we go about doing that. The fact is, we don't have much say as citizens when it comes to war. That's the thing about war, it is complicated, and most American's can't possibly understand every piece of the crazy puzzle. All we can do is hope the leaders we elected will make the best decisions for us, and for the people of the world.

What we can control is how we choose to treat those around us, and how we choose to use our voices.

Let's use our voices for kindness, not anger, our hands for healing, not hurting, our hearts for loving others first, and ourselves second.

I will leave you all with this quote by Jeremy Gilley:

"Together we can decrease the level of violence, raise awareness of our activities and save lives around the world. The impact of a day of global ceasefire and non-violence cannot be underestimated".