Your small town mindset isn't helping anybody-- and I know this is a harsh statement.

Let me start off by saying I grew up in South Florida, the opposite of a small town. Every neighborhood is close to a highway, every high school has 1,000-5,000 children and we are a 30-minute drive from Ft. Lauderdale, an hour from Miami and three from Orlando. This is the exact opposite of a small town-- we lived in the hustle and bustle of one of the most populated states in the U.S.

Small town mindsets were never something my peers and I were accustomed to. We were expected to know Spanish and English because of the influx of the diversity of the state-- as taking a different language in school was a requirement, not an option. People driving too fast down the roads by schools was not the end of the world and community swim teams with BBQ's was simply a TV concept.

We truly had a larger worldview.

Take a road trip 8 hours North to Marietta, GA and the landscape could not be more different. Being apart of a small, deeply traditionally rooted town was all they've ever known-- a vital part of almost every city in the state and beyond. I'm not going to limit this to simply Georgia though, because I'm sure you can have a small town mindset in almost every state, including Florida.

Keep driving-- you'll see the one-stoplight towns.

Alabama

Kentucky

North Carolina

Ohio

Michigan

Every single one of these states has a stereotypical small town.

Neighborhood facebook groups, weekly PTA meetings, signs that say "Slow Down! Kids Playing!" as far as the key can see. The moms stay at home and make sure their 2.5 children have the latest swimming gear, snacks when they get home and newest iPhones.

Their children can't point out North Korea on a map, wouldn't be able to tell you which country we've been most recently at war with and would gladly tell you "Trump is my President" because daddy said so.

I inherently have a problem with this because we are so caught up in living in tradition and not expanding our mindset-- we don't realize how harmful all of this is. We're sheltering our children so much they don't have a worldview. They don't know Spanish, they can't tell you the last time they've been consumed with anything other than their snap chat streaks and they are going to raise their kids the same.

Call me a raging liberal or someone who doesn't understand the small town allure, but I believe in a larger view than mom's yelling at each other on a Facebook page over whose dog pooped in whose lawn.

We have a president who is sending American born children back to countries they've never lived in.

We have a president who is threatening war with North Korea.

We have a congress proposing a budget to cut the aid needed for the less fortunate.

We have natural disasters hitting with no one helping.

Nazi's and white supremacists are running down the street comfortable in their hateful spews.

Police Officers aren't being held accountable for their actions.

Women are being stripped their rights to their own bodies.

Russia.

Climate Change.

Health Care.

We have much bigger problems going on then yelling at the teenager who ran the stop sign down the road and it's time we open up our eyes to make a change that extends far past the nicely trimmed hedges in your neighboorhood.