As a woman who strongly believes that men and women should be treated equally, I decided to attend my first Women's Rally earlier this year. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect as it was my first event of that sort, but I was very disappointed with what I experienced.

I went to the women's march because I wanted to listen to inspirational speeches that push women to reach their full potential and to surpass unfair cultural norms. I wanted to learn from others and gain insights that I could implement in my life. While this did happen, there were other things that really threw me off while I was there.

When I got to the rally, I was startled to see so many anti-Trump signs. I'm not talking about signs voicing people's opinions on his policies or his beliefs. I'm talking about people who drew exaggerated caricatures of Trump and made fun of every Republican voter, people who made harsh generalizations about entire groups of people, about half of our nation's population. Most of these posters weren't supported by facts, either.

What shocked me even more was that an Atlanta mayor candidate, Stacey Abrams, trash-talked our current president along with all conservative voters. I kid you not, she even threw in a few expletives in her speech. She bad-mouthed those with opposing political views and denounce all other political opinions.

These harsh accusations were sugar-coated by a false pretense of fighting for equal rights for all. I was baffled. How could the audience stand there supporting and cheering someone who was downright mocking an entire group of people? If a political candidate were to make fun of someone like that, what would stop her from singling out other groups, too? Where was the respect?

To add onto this, my English professor last semester openly expressed her strong dislike towards our current president and, like Stacey Abrams, she included curse words and jarring language in her talks to describe Trump in a way that didn't even mildly relate to his policies or his profession.

While she received an applause from much of the classroom, imagine how those who didn't completely agree with her felt. That was me. I was sitting in the back of the classroom, trying to keep my jaw from dropping, trying to remain respectful in the classroom setting. I wanted to speak up, I really did.

And, in hindsight, I probably should have, even if my grade in the class was at risk. I later realized how inappropriate it was for her to speak about someone in that manner.

Here's the thing: Trump is our president, whether we're happy about it or not. You don't have to like him. You don't even have to support him. That's the beauty of our country. We are free to exercise the First Amendment as we please. We CAN use curse words and shame others as we please... but we as humans are capable of more than that.

As human beings capable of loving and caring and living peacefully in the United States, it is OUR responsibility to respect him - even if he doesn't respect us. It is our responsibility to speak up about what we think isn't right and bring about change from the grassroots level. However, exercising our First Amendment doesn't have to be an uncivil act.

With that said, I would like to address what I think is wrong with a lot of Millennials who march and participate in rallies. Our nation is bipartisan for a reason; we are not respectful enough of those who have opposing views. Agreeing on an issue as a nation is highly unlikely simply because we Americans are a diverse group of people from extremely different backgrounds. Despite our differences, it's still important to be respectful of those who don't agree with us.

I've seen many posters from different rallies and marches - most recently, the March For Our Lives. I think we can all agree that we want to reduce gun violence. There is absolutely no reason that children's lives should be lost due to recklessness and lack of gun regulation. What happened is tragic and these events were acts of hatred.

But… why fight hatred with even more hatred? Why single out people with differing views by marching with posters that say "NRA members are hoes" and "Trump supporters sleep with their siblings?" Does this have anything to do with the current situation? Are posters like these really preventing future lives from being lost?

It would be far more effective to fight the issue at hand - students' lives are at risk. While there were a considerable amount of people marching for the right reasons, posters such as the ones mentioned earlier can ruin the experience of marching for a greater cause.

Before you call me a privileged, Caucasian girl - wait. I wasn't born here. I was born in India. In fact, I didn't even get my citizenship until a year and a half ago. I am a first-generation immigrant.

But while I might not have the same political views as the average non-white Millennial, I can stand behind this: No matter who you are or where you live or what you believe in, hatred should never be fought with more hatred.