Before I can say anything, I want to extend my deepest condolences to those who were affected by the shooting in Charleston, S.C. on June 17. I cannot imagine the loss that you are going through, but my thoughts are with you during this unbearable time.

After tragic events like these, I feel sick. I cannot understand why I am living in a world where mass shootings and hate crimes exist. The world was not supposed to be this way. When humans were created, who would have thought that they would end up destroying each other over something as insignificant as the color of their skin? Is that right? Is that fair? Is that just?

The color of our skin was never meant to divide nations, any scientist could tell you that. I am not a biologist, but middle school science class taught me that the color of our skin is determined by the amount of Vitamin D that our ancestors needed for ultraviolet light absorption. When it comes down to it, does that seem like the appropriate reason to hate someone? Does it actually make sense to discriminate another human based on the amount of light they need to absorb into their skin?

I want to have a talk with the first person that decided that skin color should divide the human race. I just do not understand what they were thinking. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that an entire group of people had to (and still have to) fight long and hard for their rights because of the color of their skin. At the end of the day, weare all humans. We may look different, act different, and speak different languages, but we are the same.

As for the man who entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church with the intent to kill, and for all others who share his beliefs, we do not stand by you. The human race cannot, and will not, tolerate such behaviors. People like him are what will end the world. People like him are disgusting. What he did will never be acceptable.

We need to keep Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream alive. We need to start teaching our children not to look at color when they look at people. We need to realize that we have not even come close to equaling the gap that was created hundreds of years ago. We are not a perfect nation. The United States of America is still divided. We fight wars on terrorism, yet the biggest terrorists live within the boundaries of our nation. We need change, and we need it fast.

I hope that I speak for others when I say that I do not want to see my children grow up in a world as cruel as ours. Black lives matter. All lives matter. We just need to actually believe that to make it happen.