It's happened again.

Another fatal shooting involving a cop and an African-American citizen, causing a riot, has happened again.

And this time, it's happening in my home state.

If you've watched the news lately, then you've surely seen the protests going on in Charlotte, North Carolina. The sad thing is that this seems to be a reoccurring event. There have been several incidents just like this that have occurred over the past few years and every one of them has involved a "protest" that has resulted in a destroyed city and more civilians dead or injured.

When will it stop?

When will we finally decide to stop making this a bigger deal and overreacting? I'm not here writing this article to justify the actions of those involved, I'm here to voice my opinion.

Which is unusual. I'm not one to voice my opinion on these sort of topics. I usually keep my mouth shut and watch everything unfold in front of me. But enough is enough. I've sat around and watched the news, heard the reports, read every FaceBook post, and I've reached my breaking point.

This nation has become so corrupt and so far from where it used to be that it's quite sad.

In my opinion, we've started to lack common sense and we've become a nation that takes everything personally. We're literally offended by everything. I feel as if we have to tread lightly when speaking to people because we never know if what we are about to say will offend somebody. We can't speak our mind without being ridiculed, we can't stand up for our religion without being shamed and we apparently can't defend ourselves without being racist.

Let's stop for a second and try to process the situations involving the police. Let's use our common sense and think about what our world would be like if we didn't have the police. Our streets would have more crime, there would be more murders than there are now and our lives wouldn't be as safe as they are. What good would getting rid of the police do? What good would our world be if we didn't have those people who risk their lives to protect our own?

Let's look at the situation that happened this week in Charlotte. Again, I'm not here trying to offended anyone or to make anyone mad, I'm just expressing my opinion.

I wasn't there. I wasn't with the man that got shot, I didn't know him and I don't know the police officer that shot him. But, I've heard it all. I've heard he supposedly had a book, while I've also heard that he had a gun.

Let me say something that might be a shock to some people: If a police officer tells you to stop or put down your weapon, you stop or put down your weapon.

It's really not that difficult. This is a part of the problem. If a police officer tells you these things and you don't do it, that's mistake number one. If you don't do these things and then come at them with the intention of harming them with your weapon, they have the right to defend themselves. Just like any other person has that right if they're in a situation where they feel threatened.

Defending yourself from harm has nothing to do with race. This is another part of the problem that's going on. In no way, shape or form is defending your life against someone who is trying to harm you considered racist. In my opinion, that's what people are trying to put the blame on. I think that we don't want to admit mistakes we or someone we know makes, so we try to put the blame on someone else.

Now let's talk about the protest going on. I know that this world has gotten out of hand. My home state of North Carolina keeps taking major L's this year. We're running out of gas, we have clowns running around trying to lure kids into the woods and now we have a protest going on. But here's the thing we need to get straight: it's a riot, not a protest. It's one thing to make a sign and march around proudly with it high in the air, but it's another thing to smash windows, shoot other people, rob stores and continue to cause chaos in a city. What is that accomplishing? What point is that making? What exactly are you protesting by throwing bricks into windows?

I blame the media. I blame the media for why this problem has gotten out of hand. That's all they can talk about and they talk about it in the most negative way as possible. Yes, there are racist people still living in the world today, but not everyone alive is racist. Yes, some police officers might be racist, but not all of them are. That's the issue that the media goes straight to. When something like this happens, the first thing out of their mouths is: Was this a racist act?

No. Not every incident is.

We need to wake up, America. We need to start acting like the adults we are and take responsibility for our actions and stop trying to put the blame other things. We need to stop destroying our cities just because we get angry. We need to come back together and rebuild our nation because this is not the spot we need to be in. Our nation is completely broken and is in desperate need to be healed.

I'm going to keep saying this because I know this is a heavy issue going on: but I'm not trying to offend anyone by this article. We need to draw conclusions and face up to the truth. I wasn't there at that incident but if everything I'm hearing is true, then this was not an act against race, this was an act in self defense. This isn't a protest because it's a riot.

Let's stop the violence. How are we supposed to protect our nation against foreign enemies if we can't protect ourself from ourself? All lives matter. Yes, I said it. I'm not saying it because I'm white, I'm saying it because it's true. We. All. Matter. And until we wake up and face that truth, we're going to continue to be a nation that continues to be destroyed by our own people.

Come on America. Let's get back to being that nation everyone else envied. Let's go back to being a united nation with peaceful living. Let's go back to being the bad-ass nation we were instead of the broken nation we've become.