In the past couple of decades, the United States has been through many catastrophic and disappointing events. These events include, but are definitely not limited to, the original bombing of the world trade center, the Columbine High School shooting, 9/11, and the Sandy Hook Massacre. For the generations both before me and including me, it seems as if there is always a new terrorist attack or a new national disaster that leaves everyone both distraught and discontent with the way our nation is treated and perceived.

Unfortunately, many of these events or attacks include the loss of tens, or hundreds, or thousands of lives. Furthermore, wars aiming to prevent these attacks claim the lives of many parents, grandparents, and siblings that serve in the United States Armed Forces. With all this in mind, I am here to say: let these events rest!

Now more than ever, people are looking for conspiracies in the events that surround us and loom over us. If you ask these people, 9/11 was carried out by the American government, Sandy Hook didn’t actually happen, and the war in Iraq was pointless and America just wanted to kill people. These conspiracy theories, whether purely opinionated or not, cause more harm than help.

All around the country, parents are losing their children, children are losing their parents, and people in general are losing family members due to these tragic events. Conspiracies take these deaths and make them seem insignificant. These theories are ill-mannered, aggravate the people who were affected by these events, and make America seem apathetic to the emotions of the people stricken by these awful events.

Recently, I saw a post becoming popular on Facebook that was talking about how Sandy Hook never actually happened and that those kids are probably still snuggled tightly into their beds every night. One of the responses, for the version that appeared on my page, read something along the lines of:

“I lived in Sandy Hook and still have family there. I am (or was) friends with one of the families that lost a child in that terrible school shooting a couple of years ago. I can promise you that the event really did happen and there are empty beds where sons and daughters once laid at night. I would appreciate if you stopped trying to make it insignificant.”

The post and comment perfectly show what conspiracy theories do to the people and families affected by tragic events. By making fun of the things that have happened, or making up stories describing why they didn’t, people are devaluing what the families involved went through. People are trying to rationalize that someone would make up a fake story about how they lost one of their parents, children, or siblings in a shooting to gain nationwide attention. People are trying to say that these conspiracy theories show what the real problem with America is and why we need to fix it. However, in reality, conspiracy theories ARE the problem with America. We can’t let what happened in the past stay there. We have to take over and try to devalue the experiences of people hurting. All conspiracies theories do is tear America further apart, not help bring it together.

So, I ask one thing of everyone that has ever believed in, or promoted a conspiracy theory about the tragic events that plague us:

Stop.