After the tragedy in Dallas, Dale Hansen made the comment in his report on ABC that "our lives will go on, while the lives of so many others won’t, because we expect it now and we accept it. It wasn’t this way when I was a boy, but it is life in America now." He spoke about how he was ashamed to even know that the Rangers were being shut out while the shooting went on. I think the sad reality is that our world, our generation, is slowly becoming more de-sensitized. We hear or read about a mass shooting, and it doesn't even phase us because it's just expected. But this is not okay. It's time to wake up, America. It's time to become aware of what is actually taking place.

Sure, violence has always been around, but now we have social media and television and so it is literally everywhere we look. We scroll through Twitter and see all these videos going viral of the latest shooting or violent act. We see new hashtags trying to spread awareness. We've started to accept it.

This isn't a political issue. It's not a gun control issue. It's a human issue. The problem is that we are labeling a whole group as bad simply off the acts of one person. Once cop shoots one guy and now all of a sudden all cops are bad? If you didn't notice, the cops in Dallas were being protested against. And yet, they jumped in front of the bullets to save the lives of people who are against them. If cops were really as bad as people say, they would've bailed. They would've run and not sacrificed their lives for the citizens. We are so quick to label a group that it is tearing our country apart. We must wake up and realize that yes, there are some evil people in this world. There are people who make decisions that negatively affect others. When our reaction to these events becomes a reaction of hate and instant labeling of a group, that's just adding gasoline to the fire. Instead of dividing ourselves, we have to come together and recognize that not everyone of a particular group is bad. Creating these labels and these groups just causes more trouble.

So, America, let's wake up. What is happening is not okay. This generation is growing up in a world where violence has become an acceptable answer and that should never be the case. So it's time to come together, stop the labeling, and stop becoming de-sensitized to the world.

It's time for change, and it starts with us.