Do not mistake the middle for neutrality. It is the ground in which those on opposite ends of a spectrum can meet in order to find a way for all of us to live in this world, together. In the wake of tragedies that have found a home on our daily news headlines, we have to work toward ending this epidemic of violence. A stalemate between arguments and bickering between political parties cannot be the only thing being done. Forget politics and forget Constitutional rights as citizens of this country; we have to look at these tragedies to prevent future ones in talks about humanity.

Lives have been lost, prayers have been offered and enough tears have been shed to equal the pools of blood on the ground. The recent sniper shootings in Dallas and the deaths of Philando Castile and Anton Sterling are more examples that we must add to a long list of tragedies in the world. It really doesn't seem like we can go a day without hearing that someone has been killed. Even worse, it doesn't seem like we are getting any closer to finding a way to stop all of this from happening.

Everyone has their differences in beliefs and principles, and the state of our nation right now exemplifies that better than ever before. But I do not believe that differences that we have are the problem in regards to violence. Having different beliefs allow for multiple ideas to be shared among the nation: a world where there is only one way of approaching things deters any chance of a peaceful existence. And as of right now, we absolutely do not have a peaceful existence, but I'd hope that that is what all of us are aiming for.

Unfortunately, we forget that despite beliefs, culture and politics, we actually do share common ground: many times we forget that we are all people. As such, we should be able to come together in conversation, differences in hand, where we can work side by side for a world that we can all live in. The deaths of other people should spark sadness and we have every right to be angry that it happened. Yet, as soon as people fall victim to the horrors of violence ,it seems that those that haven't been killed are only able to revert to one side of the argument of what we should do.

When someone is killed, two problems are targeted for blame: one, the people were not armed to shoot the killers, or two, the killers were able to obtain guns to shoot other people. A lot of times, people choose which one of these two is the actual problem and reject anything else. The consequence of this is that it shuts down any kind of progressive conversation.

We place blame on those that think differently than us, shielding ourselves from others rather than tackling problems side by side. It's like people are concerned more about being citizens with a political agenda rather than humans, and nothing is getting done. With that in mind, what is right must be somewhere in the middle of polar opposite beliefs.

I don't believe that the permanent answer to violence is having a gun ready to take down the next mass shooter when they come along. But that doesn't mean that I believe that the answer is to get rid of all of the guns. In all honesty, I don't know what we should do, but I know we cannot continue to fall victim to our own beliefs. We might all have our differences, but we have to come together in conversation and figure this out. Shutting down differing beliefs will only lock us in stalemate and we will never be able to truly create a peaceful world.