It seems like every single day, I can guarantee when I check the news, or some media source, I will read about another tragedy taking place somewhere in this world.

For one thing, yet another innocent person is shot by the police, even in a peaceful attempt to reason with the officer, their hands up where the officer can see them. I heard something the other day, that was something along the lines of asking how it is that police, who are doing the job that they signed up for, seem to panic in situations that they are TRAINED FOR, and in that panic, kill innocent lives. However, the victim, who is not trained and trying not to panic, ends up dead. How is this fair? How has this happened? How are the ones that are supposed to be protecting people and making them feel safe, making people feel more unsafe than anyone else. How is it that we are in the year 2016, and racism is still very much alive and prevalent, as shown by the constant attacks against African Americans as of late? We are all just PEOPLE, and the stereotyping that goes along with the racism triggering these types of attacks, needs to stop.

What about another mass shooting? How about the one in my home state of Washington last week, where the shooter goes into a mall, opening fire and killing five? A mall, a place where you go to shop around and enjoy yourself, not a place where you think you won't walk out of. What about the shooting at an elementary school in South Carolina today, a place where no parent of child should EVER have to fear for safety, simply while trying to get an education. Or, how about any of the other couple hundred shootings we have seen this year alone? People should not have to fear going to places, living about their normal, everyday lives, ever even for a second considering the fact that they might not make it home that day.

We have tragedy after bitter tragedy surfacing day by day. And the worst part of it all; the fact that we no longer are surprised. And the fact that it is such a normal thing. It is easy to turn a cheek when you are not the one being directly affected, but the thing is, we are all being affected. Our world is in chaos. People are dying because of the color of their skin, or because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, when someone decided they wanted to take away some lives that day.

It is not okay. None of it is. I am so tired of reading the latest news and seeing more people dead, when they do not deserve it. Kids, teenagers, young, old, black, white, girl, boy, it does not matter. It seems that no one is really safe, and the fact that that is even a reality, is sickening. How many more innocent people have to die before something, anything is done to solve the problems we face? It goes deeper than guns being the only issue. It is the fact that people can so easily hurt other people; they can hurt their neighborhood children, their peers, complete strangers that have done nothing to them.

When is it all going to end?