I’m a 5’ 3" Christian white girl smack dab in the middle of the Bible belt. As much as my generation wants me to believe it, I am not being oppressed. I claim to be a feminist but I’m also in a place where I’m respected and valued by the men around me. I speak out for human rights but that’s easy to do when the issues aren’t affecting me personally. The most controversial issues that have faced “my people” are the time Starbucks made their cups solid red and the fact Donald Trump has a large possibility of being president, but other than that I’m pretty well set. Yet, every day we seem to wake up to another death and another riot or attack. These stories fill the news and spill over into social media so often that for most people it has become common.

I don’t want to point fingers at anyone or place blame on an entire group of people. That, my friends, would be counter productive. I want to say, Thank you. From the bottom of my heart Thank You to the men, women and children who so strongly believe in something they would shake people up about it. Why? Because it’s never been me but if it was I would do the same thing, and if you don’t think you would yell and scream and fight against something standing in your way, you’re lying.

Thank you for reminding me some things will always be worth fighting for. As I sit in my college classes and gain the education women overseas can only dream of, the young women who put their lives on the line simply to learn to read remind me what a blessing it is to be at a university.

Thank you for reminding me that having a place to call home is so important! Waking up and knowing that tomorrow, I will have a 100 percent chance of waking up in the same place tomorrow is something I never though to be thankful for until the refuges issue surfaced and entire families were forced to find a new home. Watching them find safety in the country I so freely live in was heartbreaking in its own right but watching states shut themselves off from them was even worse, and I learned so much about the importance of hospitality and sacrifice by the means of how little of it a family with so much has.

Thank You for reminding me my body is my body and I get to choose what’s done with it. Not only am I in the Bible belt but I attend a private Baptist University, the people around me are amazing and I’ve never once been in fear no matter what time of day it was. I’ve spent countless nights walking in alone from the parking lot or across campus without even the thought of being in danger. Everyday women all over the place don’t get that same luxury, it such a huge issue that we’ve smashed down into being something so small. I would never be aware of this struggle without the stories you so bravely share.

Thank you for remanding me that freely identifying with my religion is in fact a right. This is kind of a strange thing to say thank you for but if it weren’t for the men and women who so openly fight everyday to wear something that sets them apart from everyone else and identify as part of a religion I wouldn’t be forced to ask myself how committed I am to my own. If every single day someone questioned me for following the God I followed or if I was threatened simply for being obedient would I still be as passionately open about it as I am? I pray the answer to that question is yes.

To top it all off thank you for showing me no one is too small to move a mountain. People my age are so consumed with numbers, the number of people following them on social media, the number of people they can get to share their opinion but, watching the individuals stand up and independently say “I wont stand for this” sends shock waves through nations and puts a forced perspective on really just how much one person can get done if they are passion enough. I will never be the biggest the best or the brightest but I will always have my passion on my side.

Thank you for rioting.