There were three instances where lives were lost in America this past week. Two African Americans were shot and killed unjustly: one in Louisiana, and one in Minnesota. There was also a shooting in Dallas, Texas which resulted in the loss of multiple police officer lives. Now a lot of you may be thinking "what will get done because of this?" The answer is this: nothing is really going to happen. We'll post about it for a few weeks and then, when it leaves the mainstream media, we'll simply forget about the issue. The fact of the matter is that unless the people who actually care about this issue do something in regards to this nothing is ever going to change.
Some of you may think that posting a Facebook status about how you're upset about what happened is a step towards societal change, but, in the long run, it really does no good. I know you might be upset about that, but really it does nothing at all because it's not enacting any sort of actual change, it's just flooding the internet with people saying how this is a tragedy and this should change and that should be done. There's no point talking to hypotheticals if you're not ready to enact the change yourself.
There are a few things that we actually can do. The one that can cause a direct change is to send an email to your local representatives in congress because they are in a position of power where they have the capability to enact change in our communities. Another thing that can also lead to a direct change is to email your senators seeing as they are able to enact change at the state level and could possibly change or put into place state laws that would make things better.
Protests are another way that can, at the bare minimum, bring awareness to issues that are completely ignored in most instances because they don't generate hits on mainstream media. Bringing attention to an issue is really the first step to creating a change in what is going wrong within our society, when there is a lot of attention brought to an issue by means of protest, celebrity involvement, and our elected officials bringing something up on the floor of congress there is the possibility for a change to occur.
Now please, please find something that you are able to do that even has the slightest possibility to create a change that these deaths deserve. Don't have this loss of life be in vain. Recognize that every single person has the capability to cause immense good in society. Recognize what your talents are and, I implore you, please use them to create the spark that creates the wildfire of change in our society. Without it, we will always remain stagnant and complacient with these innequalities and tensions still existing unless each and every person finds one way that they are able to make a change for the better.
