Disclaimer: The following is my personal opinion, and I am in no way attempting to disrespect anyone or any situation.
Eighty-four. It may seem like a small number. I only have $84 left in my wallet, and that's not nearly enough for the new pair of shoes I wanted to buy! Or, I only have 84 minutes left until my job interview! But, when 84 lives have been lost, that number suddenly doesn't seem so small anymore.
Recent attacks and shootings have instilled a sense of fear and anger in me, but the most recent attack in Nice, France, makes me quietly wonder just how much the world can suffer before it crumbles in pain. On July 14th, the French national holiday known as Bastille Day, a large white truck drove into the crowd gathered to watch fireworks. 84 children and adults lost their lives that day. The Islamic State claimed the attacker to be one of their soldiers, but there is no concrete evidence suggesting that the attacker received direct orders from the Islamic State.
With attacks and shootings becoming horrifyingly familiar in our Facebook and Twitter feeds, I begin to question my role in society. What can I, an 18-year-old student on summer break, do to help? At times, I feel strangely useless, watching terror unfold around me while I sit safely inside my home, behind my laptop screen. Sometimes, I think about the unfairness of life. The reality is, while I'm laughing with my friends at a cafe, people around the world are screaming with horror.
Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist and someone I personally look up to, once said, "With guns you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism." I am a firm believer that all humans have an innate fear of the unknown, and the only way to eliminate that fear is to turn the unknown into the known. I believe that the only way to do so is through education.
What can I do to help? I can learn as much as I can about the world around me and share that knowledge. I may not be able to march over to stop the killings and bloodshed, but I can learn. I can learn so that one day, I may become a doctor able to save lives, a diplomat able to negotiate, or a journalist able to share the truth. But most importantly, I learn so that I will not be uninformed. Because whatever I become, I will not become ignorant.
It's not enough to only post pictures with #prayfornice or change your profile picture with some filter and add #prayforfrance. When you post a picture or update your icon, do you truly understand the situation? Do you know what caused the attack, what happened, and why it was done? Do research. Learn about the root cause of the attack. Learn about France. Learn about Bastille Day. Posting pictures and changing your profile picture is definitely a good way to spread awareness, but doing research and sharing what you learned is just as, if not more, important.
Staying aware of the world around us not only prevents us from being ignorant, but also enables us to better understand ideas and people different from us. We live in a world of seven billion people. It is, and always will be, impossible for us to all share the same views.
But, it's not just enough to learn and keep all that knowledge to yourself. To create a better world, knowledge must be shared. If we continue to learn as much as we can, we will be able to educate the younger generations, so that they can hopefully live in a world with less bloodshed.
