Since I was 6 years old I cannot remember an America that wasn't at war. In 2001 we saw the lives of close to 3000 people extinguished on a tragic September morning. As a kid, I watched the pain and suffering of New York citizens on live television as we struggled to comprehend why 3000 of us had to die. Ever since then I've seen countless places in America go through their own heart wrenching tragedies; the most recent being in Orlando. If you think this is going to be solely about terrorism then tell me why I had to watch the tragedy of Dallas again live on television at 21 years old. Why were the very people who had sworn to protect the citizens of America being targeted by the people they were supposed to be protecting? America is going through a time of division when we are being attacked by enemies abroad in our own cities.
Every citizen and every human being gets more rights in America just by being on its soil. The fact people criticize the very country that birthed them is something that makes America great. The Western world and ideals about freedom will never be perfect, but don't piss on the country that allows you to do something that would get you killed, silenced, worked to death, or torture you in another country like China, North Korea, Russia, or any dictatorial reigned country in the world. America never ceased in its journey of freedom because of its citizens.
In a time where violence reigned as the only answer in America we saw the American Civil War ignite between whether anyone had the right to own another person. To those who wish to argue it was about state's rights, those state's had seceded before any right had been infringed and the right they thought they had was the "right" to own another person. That time period saw America's bloodiest and most violent time this hemisphere has ever seen. 3% of the population of our country died in those 4 years. If that were to happen today 10,500,000 Americans would be dead. Countless others would be wounded or lost their homes. Can you imagine the amount of death and destruction which would occur in our backyards if another civil war happen today? I don't think many people do. It scares me when I see people writing about declaring war on their fellow citizens.
Violence never ends on a good note. At the end of the Civil War we still went through the Reconstruction period and we are still dealing the effects of racism that permeated that era. People have forgotten how bad it was back then. The end of the most violent period on Earth, World War 2, ended with lines being drawn between the Soviets and the Americans which started the Cold War. If we are going to fix the faults and cracks in our imperfect freedom then we cannot do it by killing or harming our fellow Americans. As Americans, can we not pull together as a country and unite in our journey to ensure the safety and freedom of all? We've done it before and I think we can do it again, but I just hope it doesn't cost us 10.5 million lives, or even just one more life. As my generations favorite old person, Bernie Sanders, states, "When people see the justice of an idea, it catches fire very quickly."
