In the recent events, not only happening in our own country, but in other parts of the world, we need to keep everyone in our thoughts and prayers.
It's always so sad to hear about all of the tragedies that happen to good people for no reason or because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or because someone wasn't mentally stable enough to make his or her own decisions. With this in mind, no one can decide if another person's life is worth nothing or whether one person's life is more valuable than another just because of his or her skin color.
We've been seeing too much violence on television, in the news and on social media. We see people claiming black lives matter, or blue lives matter, and yes both lives are important.
But, when we're too busy making these claims, we're forgetting about all the other people in the world that may not fit into these claims. What about the Muslims, Hispanics, Europeans and Asians? Do their lives not matter? The answer is no. We all need to come together as one solid community and realize that, yes, we all may have different skin colors, ethnicity's, religions or cultures, but that doesn't mean we need to hate on one another just because we're different.
Within the past few weeks, poor Baton Rouge has seen police brutality towards a black man and someone releasing gunfire among police officers leaving three dead and three wounded. Yet, Baton Rouge is the city I have heard of coming together as a community and recognizing that all lives matter. Why can't the entire country learn from Baton Rouge before even more violence and heartbreak occurs?
Why is it whenever police officers have a run in with someone, the incident needs to be recorded and broadcasted on the Internet for all to see? Is it because everyone is so quick to play the victim instead of taking responsibility for his or her actions? You don't want to look like a criminal, so you just try to play the role of the victim? Or, is it so you can get your 30 seconds of fame?
Police officers have just as many run ins with white people as they do those of color. Not only that, but statistics show that there are more white lives taken by cops than black lives taken by cops. But yet, we don't necessarily see all of those stories on our Facebook newsfeed or in the news headlines every morning. Is that because white lives don't matter? Is it because mentally ill lives don't matter?
I'm not trying to say that black lives don't matter by any means. They definitely do. But, one life is not more important than another life. It's great to see all of the people of color that have grown up in poverty that were able to get out and prove to the world that they are more than just a statistic and that they can be just as successful as that privileged white kid that sat next to him in school.
Our nation has been sculpted and changed over the years by African-Americans that weren't afraid to stand up for their beliefs and gain the respect and appreciation that the white man gets. Just look at our current president for example. May have taken some time, but we finally voted a man of color into the White House a little less than eight years ago. Look at Serena Williams, an extremely talented athlete in the tennis world that is filled with wealthy white people.
Here's a question for those that say black lives matter, what about black police officers? Do blue lives matter then? Or, do you not care about a black life once he or she is in the police uniform? What if all of the white police officers were replaced with black police officers, do you think there would still be police brutality? What would happen if a black police officer killed a black man? Would the movement Black Lives Matter have even been created if there were more, if not all, black police officers?
I know some of you reading this may be thinking that I'm just a young white female that probably hasn't had any of my own incidents with the police. Well, I have. I have a lead foot. I go over the speed limit without even meaning to sometimes. But you know what, as soon as I see those blue lights flashing behind me, I pull over, get my license and registration, and am polite and not disrespectful to the officer. You know why? Because, I know I broke the law and it's the right thing to do after making a mistake.
When I first got my license, I remember my parents telling me to be careful if I get pulled over by the police and to make sure that I pull over in a well lit area. This was around the time that young women were being pulled over by "unmarked" police cars, being raped, left in a ditch to die.
Whether they were actually police, I don't remember. It was a time where women were terrified to be pulled over because they didn't know if it would be by a real police officer or not. Yet no one protested that female lives matter.
Let's change our gears for a second from the people that are currently walking on this Earth to the ones who never got the chance to. When I say all lives matter, I mean the lives of the unborn babies as well. Do we really even think about them as lives before they're born? I feel like most people don't, even though they have a heartbeat as early as eight weeks into the pregnancy. To me, a heartbeat means life, which means we shouldn't be so quick to abort the baby because we don't want "it." The least we could do for the unborn baby is give it to a family that will love him or her and get the baby the life that it deserves.
Babies and children should never have a doubt in their little minds that their lives don't matter. Especially since without babies that grow into children that grow into adults we wouldn't have the future teachers, doctors, police, firefighter, presidents and world leaders.
Even though the Orlando shooting happened about a month ago, we can't forget about the LGBTQ lives that matter also. Their community is bigger than we can actually account for because of all the people that are afraid to come out of the closet. No one should feel afraid or ashamed of being who they are. It's sad that we live in a world that we wouldn't be able to accept our own family members just because they like the same sex or they feel like they weren't born the right gender. If a college kid can change his or her major or drop out of college with little to no judgment then a person should be able to feel free and comfortable with expressing his or her true and real identity or sexuality. We've been so caught up in the Black Lives Matter movement that I feel like we have forgotten about our LGBTQ lives.
Rewinding into U.S. history a little bit, did anyone forget about the Asians that were held in camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Yes, the attack on Pearl Harbor was a tragedy, but that gave us no right to treat all of the Asians like they were criminals or worthless. It gave us no right to put them to work on the railroads like some sort of form of cheap labor.
Sound familiar? Sounds a little like how we've been judging anyone that is Muslim or may look like they're from the Middle East and treating them as if they were a terrorist. it's not fair to them for us to be tearing them that way when all they were trying to do was escape from the terrorist attacks that were happening in their home land and hoping that America would treat their families better than that. Are you going to try to say that Muslim or Israeli lives don't matter?
The country that was founded as an escape from religious persecution, as a land for the free, a home of the brave, where men and women were believed to have unalienable rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (as so stated in our Declaration of Independence) seems to be contradicted by the recent actions that we have been taking.
As I read through the news while writing this I stumbled across articles accusing people of using the slogan "All Lives Matter" as a accidental racist. I don't quite understand what is racist about seeing that out of the entire world everyone's life (from Blacks and Whites to Asians and Europeans to Muslims and Christians to the elder and the unborn) holds the same value and deserves the same amount of respect, love, and appreciation.
All lives matter shouldn't be looked at as a slogan for the "accidental racist." It should be looked at as combining all the recent campaigns -- Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, White Lives Matter, Hispanic Lives Matter, Asian Lives Matter, Muslim Lives Matter, Elderly Lives Matter, Unborn Lives Matter (some of them aren't even campaigns) -- together as one. To create some unity in the world. And If I forgot anyone, please don't feel offended because we all do matter!
