Fear.

What do you hear of when you think of it? What do you see? Maybe it’s gunshots ringing in your ears, blood stains on the floor, screaming, crying, pleas for help, police sirens, TV news reports, terrorism, and genocide. Maybe you see someone, maybe you see me.

What do you feel? Perhaps you feel suffocated by the pressure of it all, shaky from the images on the news or in your head, angry, frustrated—or maybe nothing at all. Maybe you feel numb, accustomed to seeing it splashed across every social media outlet or overexposed to it in your own life.

Fear is an extremely volatile emotion. There is a reason why enemies try to inflict it on their victims. It has a way of making people do things you could never imagine. While many people may first try to run or hide, they won't do that forever, and when their fear of confrontation runs out they will turn to aggression. They will lash out at anything, everything, their trust completely eradicated.

It's the strongest contender of hope, and it's taking over our world. Because of fear we are attacking each other, fighting in the streets, police are shooting innocent perpetrators, governments are starting wars and genocides. It's so hard to understand what you're doing at the time, so hard to control the fear coursing through your veins, but we need to. We need to fight it.

Aren't you tired of watching humanity tear each other apart? Of seeing death and shooting tolls rise exponentially every year? We shouldn't be afraid to go to concerts out of fear of being shot. We shouldn't be afraid of strangers on the street asking for help, of persecution because of our skin color, sexual orientation, or religious choice. We shouldn't be afraid of letting refugees into our country out of fear of terrorism. This is no way to live; not for an individual, a community, or a country. Fear is destroying society from the inside out.

So we must keep our hope and fight back. We must not lose our strength. But we'll need each other if we truly want to win our peace of mind back, and that requires trust. Is it possible? Are we capable of putting aside our differences to try and revive the good in this the world? I still have hope that we can beat this, and I believe you might too.