This constant bickering needs to stop.

We have become a divided nation. The constant racial, political, and socio-economic division plaguing our country needs to stop. For if it doesn’t, we are only speeding up the process of our own demise. I’m sick of it, and so is half of this country.

Once upon a time, we lived in a nation where we were able to put aside all of our differences and unite together. We were once able to befriend people who were of different political beliefs, different races, cultures, and socio-economic classes. We united in times of natural disaster and any other sort of tragedy our communities faced. We were able to discuss our differences rather than attack one another for them. We once went out of our way to help our neighbors and peers, but now we go out of our way to hurt and disrespect these very same people.

I know that people will call me dylusional and tell me that I must be forgetting that the civil rights era didn’t happen all that long ago. And that during those times, we were more divided than ever. These people would be both right and wrong. The difference between the civil rights movement and the political climate of today is that the civil rights movement was just that, it was a legitimate movement fighting for the civil rights of American citizens, not just an attack on political ideology. People weren’t just squabbling over petty issues that did nothing more than divide our society, they were fighting for their rights, something that you shouldn’t have to fight for in the first place. Sure the civil rights movement divided people, but it did more than just that, it brought many, many people together. It brought people together to change something that was ethically wrong in our society. Whatever it is that we’re arguing about and hating one another for now days, isn’t even close in magnitude in what was being fought over during the civil rights era.

Now days, we preach about love and acceptance but don’t follow through with our words and our actions. We demand respect from everyone else around us while expressing our beliefs, but are unwilling to yield the same respect to others. It’s madness. What has happened to this country?

Just the other day, in response to the tragic mass shooting in Las Vegas, a CBS reporter commented that “the victims don’t deserve our sympathy because most country music concert goers are Republican.” I was flabbergasted by such a comment. We’ve finally gotten to the point that we can’t separate a person from their political beliefs. We despise and shun people who think differently from us. We don’t just shun the political beliefs and the ideas we don’t agree with, but we also shun the person. Which might I add, is an incredibly dangerous mentality to be consumed by. Apparently we’ve gotten to the point where some people believe that your life is worthless if we aren’t all brainwashed robots that think the same thing. Sadly, I myself have experienced this same mentality both in college classes, College Mock Trial, and while engaging in any sort of discussion with my peers. I’ve learned the hard way that people will hate you not for who you are at heart, but for who you support on a ballet.

This senseless bickering and divisiveness needs to come to a stop. It does nothing more than avert our attention from the bigger problems looming over our head. Our government loves the fact that our society is so divided that we’re willing to jump down each others throats about anything. This makes it all too easy to divide and conquer. No one is talking about how powerful our government has gotten due to the fact that we’ve turned our backs and allowed for them to take power. Hardly anyone is talking about how much of a strong hold the government has on our lives, how they tax us to death on every single thing we own, about heavily reforming the ever crumbling education system, how we’re killing ourselves and the plant we live on, or about how the huge technological leaps we're making with artificial intelligence could affect every single industry and put millions out of traditional jobs within the next 20 years. We’ve allowed ourselves to get so caught up in the mundane hodgepodge of these irrelevant, petty arguments and problems that we’ve failed to hold our government accountable. Our government has far more power than they ever should. And that’s our fault. And the only way to change that, is to unite together as one and fix the problems we have in this country rather than just play the finger pointing game and hate each other over the ideas in our head.

America isn’t perfect, and it never will be, but this country needs a serious wake up call. Many don’t know, but the more we continue to squabble and pick fights over senseless issues in which neither side will gain anything from, except gaining a greater sense of loathing and distrust for one another, the more we lose.

Let us stand united.