I went through the entire week completely stuck on what to write my Odyssey article about this week. That is, until I came across this article. It made me upset, it made me angry, and it gave me an idea on what to write about. I would like to start off by telling the author of that article that it was brave of you to put out this article. I completely agree with you that Americans are extremely lucky and definitely have a noticeable privilege compared to other countries. However, you did not even do research and most of the points that you made make you seem ignorant to what is going on in your own home country. I am not here to attack you, but I would like to take this opportunity to educate you on what you seem to have gotten wrong in your own article.

Let’s start off with your argument that the LGBTQ+ community is becoming more accepted in the United States. Yes, you are 100% right about that. The LGBTQ+ community is much more accepted than it was 50 years ago. Hell, it’s even more accepted than it was 5 years ago. However, did you forget that there was just a massacre at a LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando less than a year ago? Or have you been paying attention to the southern states that are passing the bathroom bills that prevent transgender people from using the bathroom that they are comfortable with? Did you not see that news article about a woman who wanted to bring a gun in public places to protect herself from transgender women using the women’s bathroom? Or how about the millions of LGBTQ+ youth who are homeless because their own parents cannot accept who they are as a person? Yes, the LGBTQ+ community is much more accepted in the United States today, but so many people in that community fear for their lives daily because of mass shootings and an extremely conservative vice president who is not in favor of LGBTQ+ rights.

Next, let’s hit that religious views argument. Your exact quote is “You get offended because someones religious views are different than yours, but in many other countries you will be brutally tortured for having opposing views.” Are you not paying attention to how people who practice Islam are treated in this country? Let’s talk about the travel ban that Trump put in place. The ban was not specifically on Muslims, but the six countries that were banned were predominately Muslim countries. Even today, fifteen years after the 9/11 attack, Muslim victims are often overlooked. Muslims died in the attack, yet their families do not seem to matter because they are viewed as “terrorists”. How sad is it that a family who is grieving with the rest of the nation on one of the most devastating days in our countries history cannot even grieve properly because they are seen as the enemy? The plane hijackers were radical Islamists, just like the KKK is made up of radical Christians. Hate crimes are committed against Muslims every day, even with some being killed because of their religion, but no one bats an eye because they are seen as the enemy. That’s just incredibly heartbreaking.

When you speak about how women in other countries would love to show their face, yeah, probably. But you also have to understand that women wear burqa’s because it falls in line with their religious values. The reason for the hijab, the burqa, and other forms of covering bodies is to prevent men from over sexualizing women. Sure, some governments do oppress women and make them cover completely from head to toe, but in the countries that don’t, women are the ones choosing to cover themselves. In fact, covering up makes women in these countries feel safer when they are out in their towns, and being accompanied by a male relative adds to this comfort. Sadly, I do not have the article anymore, but in a class I took about women in the Middle East last semester, we learned all about the fact that women are not oppressed just because they are covering their bodies. I apologize for not including the articles I learned these facts in, but it’s nothing a little Google search can’t help with. But just because

Honestly, I’m not going to say much on mental illness. But I will say this. As someone who is friends with people who have mental illnesses as well as suffering from anxiety myself, it is frustrating when people pretend to have mental illnesses. However, you can never really be sure if someone is faking it or not so it’s hard to get mad at people when they can really be suffering in silence.

What happened in Syria is absolutely horrible. That is something I think every good-hearted person can agree on. However, people in this country are fearing for their lives as well. The LGBTQ+ community cannot even go out to a club specifically for the community without being fearful of being a part of another massacre. Muslims cannot practice their religions in a safe way without being criticized, mocked, harassed, threatened, or even killed by ignorant United States citizens who don’t understand that Islam’s foundation is peace. Women are still in a fight with their government for rights to their own bodies. Innocent black lives are being lost because people are "afraid" of them just walking down the street. And you're saying that we are lucky when massacres and shootings and acts of terrorism committed by our own citizens are happening on our own soil?

I really hope that by writing your article, you don’t complain about anything ever again. Yes, American’s are extremely lucky to be living in a basically free country. But you also have to realize that there are many people that are oppressed in our country. That is why LGBTQ+ Pride exists, why Black Lives Matter became a social movement, why so many other organizations exist to stop this oppression of minority races and social groups in our country. You should absolutely be angry about what happened in Syria. That should make you upset and it should make you want a change. But you also decided to support Mr. Trump in his decision, when his campaign was based on putting America first. He clearly is not putting America first by sending missiles to Syria when people in his own country are being murdered for their race, religion, and sexuality. Yes, we have privilege, but you are looking at this “American” privilege through white eyes. And trust me, I was blind to all of this a few years ago too being a white, cisgender, heterosexual female. I understand that I have a lot more privilege than many of my fellow Americans. However, as someone with a lot of privilege, I believe that it is my job to learn how the rest of the country is living and try to bring attention to issues that minorities face in the best way that I can. Clearly I cannot even fathom how terrified some of my fellow citizens feel living in the United States under this new presidency, but I can use my privilege to help other uninformed Americans understand that we are fighting our own battles here and that we need to help our neighbors instead of attacking them. Or worse yet, ignoring them.

If this gets back to you, please take a minute to think about how your views about privilege would be different if you were Muslim, Black, Hispanic, part of the LGBTQ+ community, anything other than a white woman. I think one thing we can all agree on is that the United States is far from perfect, but please do not bash people who are afraid to live in their own country just because you feel completely safe every day.