Contrary to popular belief, America is not flawless. We've definitely got a lot of issues we need to work on solving. I think one of our issues is comparing ourselves to other countries and having the mindset " Oh, well at least we don't have to deal with [insert third world country issue here]." Although there is some truth in that statement, it's an extremely unhealthy mindset to have. We as Americans have the potential to create an amazing country filled with opportunity as the world used to see, we have so much potential we are throwing away right now. Just because there is more tragedy and struggle in other countries, it doesn't take away from the issues that we have going on in our own backyard. Yes, we are a very fortunate country but we are not perfect and we need to address the issues we face today thinking about the country as a whole. We should be thinking about the world as a whole but... baby steps.

Primarily, our main issue is our lack of ability to think of others. It is okay to think about your own well-being and your own happiness but there comes a point in life when you have to realize that- and yes I'll use a High School Musical term for this- we are all in this together. At the end of the day we are just trying to live our lives and survive. It's difficult to dwindle it down to one example but it's just the idea of remembering we are a giant community. We often get too caught up in our own lives, we get fixated on our own issues and our own well-being, at times it can interfere with others'.

You could be having an absolutely horrible day- you've got a headache, you're car wouldn't start, work was awful, etc. and you decide to take it out on the cashier at the grocery store. That negative energy is going to be rubbed off onto the cashier. This is a mild example but if we want to look at a more broad example we could look at the issue we've been struggling with the past couple of months - police officers and african americans. Racism and fear are being poured onto the streets all over America that is leading to unjust murder of innocent people.

Now it's easy to get wrapped up in these things we call emotions, many of which often control us more than we would like. Part of the major issue occurring right now is a mixture of raw emotion and immediate reaction, basically our fight or flight response. Unfortunately, this can be a deadly human flaw when you add a gun to the situation (which is a completely different issue but one we should be discussing). It doesn't take an expert to look at the situation we've had on our hands the past couple of months to realize we've got a serious issue going on with how we see one another. It doesn't matter who the victim is, EVERY LIFE ON THIS EARTH MATTERS. Whether you're African American, Hispanic, European, Brazilian - WHATEVER your skin pigmentation, your are important. I think it's completely ridiculous that we are still in this absurd mind set of racism and hatred.

Instead of focusing on the color of someone's skin, the clothes they wear, etc., we need to focus on who they are inside and what they have to bring to the table. We've got to stop discriminating. There are going to be good people and there are going to be bad people. There are going to be good cops, there are going to be bad cops. There are going to be white individuals with bad intentions and African Americans with good intentions. To be perfectly honest I have the most difficult time in arguments regarding racism because I myself have never fully understood how people can be racist, but the point is- at the end of the day we are all human and it is as simple as that.

Personally, anger fills me every day I choose to educate myself on what's going on in our country, let alone the entire world, and all I read about is death. I think it's absolutely ridiculous and regressive. Not only does our lack of standing together affect our well-being but it stretches to health care, our education system, our solutions to homelessness and hunger, our economy, and just being kind in general. We are a community of individuals who each have loved-ones, who each have dreams and goals, who are each trying to survive. We need to start coming together and realizing this. This continuous pattern of our own citizens being killed needs to end. Something has got to change and it's got to be now. There can be SO much more to life than just trying to survive against each other. We have the potential to create a better world, it's time to get over ourselves and start making changes.