I sit here tonight in complete awe, fear and sadness for our country's people. The unified grounds upon which we once bravely marched have been ripped apart by a storm of utter hate. Love has been replaced with hatred, we constantly fear the next hate-crime or retaliation crime, and everyone has an enemy.

What kind of country is that?

It is 2016. There is absolutely zero plausible reason one group of people - fellow American citizens, might I add -- should bond together against another group of individuals. Yes, we have our differences. Many of these are simply physical (race, sex, age, etc.), while others are political and heck, maybe even spiritual. Who knows.

What I see are two current acts of division in our country that cannot be denied.

1. There is racism and it is hurting people.

I am a firm believer in the police force. Fire at me all you want, but I respect those men and women. Now, before anyone leaps towards their keyboard prepared to rip my head off, I do not believe in stark racism. No, no, no. My eyes are wide open and I see that people (key word people -- not cops) are behaving like hateful, ruthless children and turning to murder to "resolve" their differences. The sadness and embarrassment that is racism still exists and it is tearing our country apart.

I ask God, "When was the day we became so cowardly? When did we become afraid of one another? When did we begin to see our differences as excuses to hate one another?"

The answer I get is simple -- it is as simple as what is said in the bible: Show them love. Show the most hateful of hearts what love is, because at the end of the day, love is the only thing that will change them. Show them God's love.

2. Violence is not the ingredient.

Our nation has come to feed off of generalizations. Listen to this and think about how ridiculous it sounds:

"Oh, those ten black gang members murdered a man on the street? Black people are horrible! Shoot them!"

Or, "Oh, those ten different cops killed ten innocent people? All cops are racists! Shoot them!"

How is this going to fix anything? We seem to have forgotten how to differentiate the good from the bad. Here's a painful truth: The world will always have bigot fools. As broken as our hearts may be and as filled with fire we may feel, we cannot return murder with murder. This solves nothing and will only divide our broken nation more.

My soul aches knowing that countless families have watched their husbands, wives, and children be brutally murdered for the despicable reason that is race. Those cowardly murderers deserve the punishment they receive, if not by our law then by the Good Lord himself.

My heart also breaks, though, knowing that some are ignorant enough to believe that fighting back with more violence will solve our nation's problems.

We are grown, intelligent, loving people all living together on the same soil. Grow up, bury your differences, and unite as a country once more.