This past week was filled with discussions about the election. I tried to avoid them because I felt like avoidance was the key to keeping my sanity. Thankfully, I was able to bypass the majority of the endless and pointless arguments, but the things I could not ignore were the recent news articles about the hate attacks from both Trump and Clinton supporters.

Even though I know I should, I rarely read or watch the news because I feel like most of what is going on in the world either doesn't directly affect me or will only bring me down. But, with the recent news about a hate attack that occurred in Lafayette, LA, only three hours away from me in Monroe, LA, I realized how close these problems actually are to me. "A female student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette was beaten, robbed and had her hijab ripped off by two men, one of them wearing a white "Trump" hat ." Several people have chosen to blame Trump for this incident, but despite what Trump has said, these two men chose to do what they did at their own will.

The world is filled with so much hate, and every time we seem to make progress, things seem to deteriorate instead. There is no simple cure to overcoming the racism and hate our country is suffering from, but instead of trying to solve these problems, many people are contributing to it by spreading more hate because they are angry or hurt by things that have happened; that is only making the situation of our country worse. We need to start turning things around and make progress towards improving our country.

Our country is diverse, and many people look down on that, but I think we need to learn to embrace the beauty of diversity. Instead of thinking less of someone from another country or different background than you, take the time to learn about that person. "By learning about other cultures, we learn to be more accepting of others and their differences." I also believe that learning about someone who is different from us also allows us to learn a lot about ourselves. Diversity is a beautiful thing, we just need to learn to appreciate it and use it to help unite our country.

Something else I think our country needs is love. We have been seeing so much hate recently, and it's time to start counteracting that hate with love. I think we should each try to be a light in someone's life each day because we never know how much even a small gesture might mean to someone. Show people kindness and patience, even when it's hard, and learn to forgive and let things go. Love those who are like you, and love those who aren't. The important thing is to love. “Love can unite people in purpose, culture, and peace. Ultimately it has the power to unite the whole world.”