“People killin', people dyin'

Children hurt and you hear them cryin'

Can you practice what you preach?

Or would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father help us

Send some guidance from above

'Cause people got me, got me questionin'

Where is the love “

If you remember the hit song “Where is The Love” by the Black Eyed Peas, then I’m sure you remember this catchy chorus and instead of reading the lyrics began to sing them yourself. If you haven’t heard it before then you definitely should go listen to it. Not only does it have the ability to get stuck inside your head for days at a time to where you even randomly catch yourself just humming the tune, but it also has an extremely significant meaning behind it. The lyrics are directly aimed at our world and questioning where is the love because even in a world filled with millions of loving people, the love seems to get lost in all the chaos and violence among us. What’s crazy is that this song was released in 2003. Our world has gotten so much worse since then so now this song couldn’t be any more perfect to describe the world that we’re indeed living in. This song sends a beautiful message to the world. If you’ve never payed attention to it before, here’s your chance because I’m going to break it down for you.

*Disclaimer*: The ways I choose to affiliate the song with our world and use in comparison may not be what the real meaning behind the lyrics are. The comparisons are completely my own opinion and how I feel they are relating to our world. If there is something you disagree with or believe I am wrong about then I am sorry. Just remember that this is my own opinion.

The beginning of this song starts out by questioning what’s wrong with our world. People are acting like they are not well raised and taught by their mothers. It is a mother’s job to help shape a child’s motives and ways of life from birth so if they don’t have a mother who is raising them right then they become trouble. Today this is what the world is like. There are so many people filled with hate and anger and they are acting out on these emotions. It’s like they were either not taught to be civil and well-mannered or they were just taught to be this uncivilized human being and that’s not okay. Next he moves on to saying that instead of looking at all the great things in the world people are too focused on the drama and violence the world brings which is correct. There are so many unhappy people today because they continue to get involved with worldwide drama or personal drama between people when in reality it’s them that are causing their own trauma. It’s like that saying “If you go looking for trouble, you’re going to get hurt”. Well it’s the same thing in this situation. If people would just mind their own business and go on living their own lives by focusing on all the good the world brings and trying to be more positive then there would be less drama in the world. Drama is heightened by attention. If there is no attention to it then it eventually dies down in the blink of an eye. Then lastly in this part of the song it talks about terrorism. Our army has been trying to stop the terrorism overseas for a while yet at the same time we still have our own terrorism to deal with in our country. I’m not trying to say our country is being hypocritical but I mean I'm just trying to understand it. We have all these hate groups that terrorize our own people on a daily basis and I understand that our country isn’t directly supporting them, but what is being done to stop them? Before we worry about the safe being of any other country we need to focus on the well-being of ours first. We can’t expect to make a difference and stop terrorism overseas if we can’t even do it in our own country first.

In the next part of the song racism is the main focus. What he's saying is that if you only love people of your own color then you're just making the racism in our country worse. We need to just forget about the color of our skin and treat everyone the same. There is obviously a huge race war going on in our country today. As much as we want to ignore it, we can't because it seems like every day there's a new story about discrimination. It's causing more and and more problems and leading us further from unity. If more people could forgive and move on from the past, we could solve the racism problems our country faces. As long as people continue to hate then the worse the situation is going to get.

Now it's time to explain the chorus. It's very simply stated and easy to comprehend. There are people killing others every single day. This past year of 2015 alone there were 372 mass shootings in the U.S. killing over 400 people and wounding over 1,800. There's also thousands of kids living in bad homes being abused and mistreated. The question is why are we letting this become the poster image for the United States? People talk about what is right, yet they don't change their ways or try to help. Just like the lyrics say "can you practice what you preach?" because there are just too many people turning their backs on what is ethical. Don't be a hypocrite. Step up and help change the world for the better. Next he starts to sing "father, father, father help us". This is one major necessity. We need more people to listen to the God's words. He is what keeps the faith in our humanity there. With him there is hope that our people can change. Without him though, the world will just continue to lose sight is what's right. It doesn't make sense because you would think everyone would want to make our world the absolute best place to be, but some just continue to cause trouble and chaos. They.They are the ones who make you question where the love is.

Now he talks about hold the world has changed. Back in the old days our world was a much safer place. People could walk on the street without having to worry about being alone, families could go to movies without the fear of a shooting happening, and parents could send their kids to school without the fear of a bomb threat happening. Now sometimes it's not even safe to walk with other in broad daylight. What changed? How did this become the world we live in? Why are people more concerned about the gay couple holding hands rather than the little boy with bruises all over him or the profane language your child is coming home saying? Love is supposed to conquer all but it seems like that's not even enough. Racism, sexism, and gay hatred still exists and is an ongoing problem in our world so all the pieces still are perfectly together for us yet. Across the world, there are wars going on. They are bombing with no mercy. Chemicals, including different chemical weapons, are killing innocent children as well as many men and women. It's hard to understand why some are okay with this. If you're killing your own to solve a problem then maybe you and your way are the problem.

Now he is trying to understand what is going wrong in the world. This is how a lot of people feel now a days. It seems like people are continuing to make wrong decisions that hurt themselves or others. People are beginning to see money as the priority so that's all they're after. Everybody wants to be rich and people are going to extreme measures to try to make it happen rather than fairly earning it. They are being rude and selfless, not helping anyone but themselves. I hate to admit it but there are a lot of people like this in our world today. People just aren't showing sympathy for one another. Then we have wars going on around us, but we have no idea why. We think we have an idea, but in reality we're all clueless. The government keeps that secret from us along with many other things. Towards the end of this part of the song he says "if you never know truth, then you never know love". If this is true then how do we find the love with so many secrets in our country and world?

In this part he's saying that even though he didn't cause it, all of the violence, negativity, and hate is falling onto him as if he has "the weight of the world" on his shoulder. It's true that as you get older, people get worse and worse. Today we all can see the changes in people we used to know. Some are for the better but there are a lot of people who have changed for the worse. They have let the brutality of our world get to them and transform them into a cold, hateful human being. Everyone seems to only be out to help themselves. If their life is going well then who cares how yours is going. A lot of people have lost the characteristic of being kind and caring.

During this part of the song he questions the humanity, fairness, and equality of our world. A lot of people have began to act inhumane. It's like the have no heart and no care for anyone but themselves. Our world is not fair. People are continuing to be looked for numerous jobs, sports, etc, based on racial and sexist judgment. The fight for equality has been among us for a while but there are still many things to improve. This makes a lot of people worry about what is to come in our world. The best way to get through these worries is to continue to fight for what is right and keep faith in our humanity. With time and effort, we can make a difference.

This last part repeats some of the chorus and move onto repeat "One world, one world (We only got)" and " And something's wrong with it (yeah)." This small saying makes a huge statement. It's true, we only have one world and we already have a lot of problems going on with it. If we keep this up we are just destroying ourselves. Pretty soon humanity will be a thing of the past. If everyone could just put in a little effort to changing the way our world acts, it could go a long way. We need to eliminate racism, sexism, gay hatred, violence, abuse, and greed. Parents need to start teaching kids more about hard work and respect, other than crime and drugs. Not just teaching wise, but image wise too. Kids grow up mimicking the habits of family and friends so if you are living a bad lifestyle then chances are your kids will too. Change is not hard when you really put your mind to it.All it takes to make the change that our world needs is love and unity. When people can put aside all the issues and differences that will be when our world will see improvement. This song is a splitting image of our world today, but with time hopefully it will be a reminder of how far we've came since then.