I'm not going to sit here as I write this article and pretend that I know everything about the situation going on between the police force and the black community . I also will not sit here and pretend to completely understand what that community feels like while all of these events are going on. But what I do understand is that writing something like this may change the way my friends and peers look at me, and I'm okay with that.

I have complete respect for both sides of this issue. I think that every side has a say, they have their opinions, and each one deserves to be heard. They each have their own hardships and struggles on this issue. Honestly, in my opinion, I don't think it matters what color, race, religion, etc.- every single life matters. Every person's experience is different, and every single person is their own individual. Simple as that.

This is what I do know: as far back as I could remember, I've had family or friends in the line of duty. Police officers, Fire Marshals, Fire Fighters, Marines, Navy, Corrections Officers, Court Officers. From my father, to my uncles, cousins, friends, and brother-in-law, it seems that in each direction of my family there is someone I know in a profession like this.

I do know there are people who live in America and are worried what will happen to them if they walk on the streets, and that they live every day in fear. And while I do feel so deeply terrible for those people and wish differently for them, and wish for a solution for their pain, every day I live in a different kind of fear when it comes to my loved ones.

I fear for my friends and family who run into a burning building to save the lives of others, not knowing if they'll be able to save their own. I worry about my friends who have decided to fight for their country and keep away the people that are trying to destroy our home. Them being so young and on the other side of the world, I sit at home and worry about when, and if, they'll be able to come home. My cousin, who is younger than I am, decided he wants to join the police force to help protect people. Well, God forbid anything happens to him, who is going to protect him? When he gets called to a scene, it's his job to assess the situation and diffuse it as best as he possibly can; he may be looking out for others, but who is looking out for my 20-year-old little cousin? And every day I pray for my brother-in-law, who works as a Corrections Officer in New York. I pray that he doesn't get stabbed by an inmate who was crafty enough to make their own weapon out of something so simple as a domino and a Bic pen. I pray that should a riot start with the inmates against the officers, he is able to protect himself. I worry that my sister will get a call from his job one day saying that she needs to get him at the hospital because an inmate tried to beat him to death. My brother-in-law has watched so many of his coworkers get slashed, stabbed, beaten, and who knows what else on the job. Not to mention, the inmates that still have gang connections will contact others on the outside and order officers and their families be killed—something that has actually happened within the last year and a half.

This is not a comparison of what side suffers more than the other. I don't believe that when human lives are involved, people should be trying to prove something like that just for the sake of an argument. In my own perfect world, everyone in this issue would realize that each person involved is an individual, with their own thoughts, ideas, personalities, and their own life that belongs to them.

I may be naïve and wishing for the impossible, but just think about how much better the world would be if everyone shared a view of the world where we understand everyone is entitled to their own life and their own opinion. And I truly believe that every single life matters, not one specifically over another. I hope that one day I get to live in a world where I finally experience peace among everyone. I'm hoping that some day soon, everyone will decide to stand up with one another, and not against. I think we should start saying "imagine what it would be like to live in a world with perfect harmony," and start actually experiencing it.