As a student I am required to reflect on my work many times a week. But as I sat on the beach reading a chapter out of Glennon Doyle's Untamed, I reflected on not my school work but my work on here.
I thought of all the times that I came on here to spread the news that we had let our country down again. That more people had succumbed to the gun violence epidemic that plagues America unlike any other country.
Specifically, in my last issue I reported on the shooting at a Baltimore block party in July. Since then there have been shootings all over the country in states with strict and loose gun laws, like the countless Fourth of July shootings that occurred on what should be a day of celebration for our country.
I realized that it is not enough for me to spit out gruesome and disturbing facts and tell everyone that we are doing something wrong. Most people already know this. The point of my writing is to inspire action. Not to anger people by insisting that we have all made a huge mistake and have dug ourselves a tremendous hole. That doesn't mean that we are too deep in the hole to even attempt to dig ourselves out.
No one likes to be thought of as wrong or foolish. And we are not blaming simply the people that commit the acts of violence. This epidemic that we are so deeply entwined in, is the product of centuries worth of compliance with the idea that people have the right to carry a gun.
Those who carry them today and believe in ignorance instead of open-mindedness regarding the gun violence crisis, still cite their right to the Second Amendment as the crucial evidence that people can continue to use weapons as a threat and not protection. In reality it is not about the fact that the Constitution defends every citizen's right to bear arms. It is about the fact that for the last 50 years we have taken advantage of that right.
The first step on our road to national recovery is to accept that we have a problem. There is still a small percentage of people in America who believe that gun violence is not an issue. This is a problem. My goal in all of this is to make it obvious to everyone that America, we've got a problem.
The next step is that many people know we have a problem and continue to believe that it is not their responsibility to address it. The gun violence crisis is a national issue that requires the action and attention of every citizen in America. These people make up a large majority of the population. My goal in this step is to make everyone aware that their voice can make a difference. If more young people like me get involved in the fight, there is a possibility that our generation can be the one to obliterate the leaders that thrive in the chaos of gun violence and other humanitarian crises like widespread poverty and immigration laws, and allow our nation to take a major step on the path to recovery and redemption.
Because really, we are not the country we once were or considered to be. The land of the free does not allow their innocent children to be shot down at school or at their neighborhood's block party. We can and will do better. But quite literally, it takes a village.
And that village is every single person in America, standing up for our country.
댓글