I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Facebook, but recently scrolling through my news feed has become more and more of a chore. I’m getting really sick and tired of all of the ignorance and hatred stemming from almost every other post that’s on my news feed.

For starters, the Orlando shooting that took place a few days ago was an absolute devastating tragedy. It makes me happy that people are reaching out and supporting Orlando, letting them know that they are not alone; we’re all in this together.

However, on the other side of this, you have people taking this heartbreaking situation and twisting it into more of a political debate than it has to be. There are all of these people complaining about how the government is going to take their guns, and I understand that everyone has different thoughts regarding guns; that's perfectly fine.

What’s not okay is the fact that it seems like everyone is more concerned with their guns than the lives lost. Since when is the supposed loss of your guns, which nobody is actually trying to take away from you, greater than the loss of so many innocent lives? Last I checked, lives are more valuable than anything else.

I know you want to protect yourselves, but I feel like ranting about the government and its laws, especially laws trying to ensure that things like this don’t happen anymore, takes away from the actual situation at hand. People are doing everything in their power to protect their guns instead of putting forth that energy to help out the families in need; it takes away from the severity of the situation and isn’t very fair to those involved.

The other downside to these rants is that people have become incredibly disrespectful to one another. I understand that everyone has their own opinions, and a friendly debate between open minds can be a beneficial learning experience. However, it doesn’t seem like very many people have an open mind, or even respect other people.

You by no means have to agree with anything anyone else says, but you do have to be respectful of others. Just because a friend on Facebook has a different opinion than you, this doesn’t mean that you have to personally attack, or even threaten that person. You can let them know your viewpoint, but there is absolutely no need to belittle them if they don’t suddenly change their views to fit yours. You wouldn’t like it if they did that to you, so why do it to them? Besides, if it wasn’t over the internet, would you really get that violent and aggressive with them in person? I doubt it.

Obviously we have a problem with violence, but I think it’s way past time that we realize a nation torn apart can’t solve anything. We need to all come together and realize that we all have differences, but we also all have feelings! Everyone lives differently and is entitled to their own opinions, we just have to all come together, remain open minded, and accept others’ views. Attacking each other WON’T solve anything; just remember that next time you go post a hateful comment on someone’s status.

The quicker we come together and respect each other, the less hatred will be in our lives, and the quicker we’ll all be able to live our own lives in peace. I hope we all realize that soon.