may be a bit polarizing.  I'm okay with that.  I think it's absurd that it would be, though, because I think human kindness is instinctual and any type of prejudice or hatred is unnatural, but I digress.

Yes.  All lives matter.  Duh.  That goes without saying.  But being born as a straight white American female, I will never know the battles, large and small, that minorities have to fight every day.  And for that, I'm sorry.  For that reason, I want to use my otherwise misplaced privilege to do good.  To evoke change.  To start a conversation.  

Here's what I know: we're all human beings.  The universe is wildly vast.  In our teeny galaxy, we have nine planets (never 4get Pluto), and there is only human life that we know of on one.  So how can anyone sit there and hate each other for our inconsequential differences when we are the most similar things to each other in the entire known universe?  

That kind of hate is taught and passed down, we were not born that way.

We have gotten to a point in our society where we're scared to be in a movie theatre, on a train, at a concert, by ourselves, at a bar, at church, at school.  The places where we're supposed to feel safest.  Trust me, if I were a police officer, I'd be terrified for my life every single day.  That being said, what is happening to our brothers and sisters because of that fear should not be tolerated.  We need to change the way we let our society be run because we are all operating through fear.  All of us, including the police force, are fueled by fear.  Why do wars start?  Fear.  Where does hate come from?  Fear.  It is the root of all evil and our nation lives in a perpetual state of it.

There is NOT "nothing you can do."  We are all responsible.  Every day that we wake up to another hashtag and immediately put our phones down, we are actively choosing to do nothing. We are choosing to let this go on.  We are a government run by the people (at least that's what we used to be) and it's on us.  Every voice is a valid and powerful one, and I cannot NOT use mine anymore.  

It's also completely unjust to fight fire with fire.  Violence and more hate solves nothing.  We should be showering each other with love.  Quite literally killing them with kindness.  All lives do matter.  I realize that's not the fight being fought right now, but they do.  Of course black lives matter, anyone who disagrees is on the wrong side of history, but the same goes for every life on this planet.  

What kind of example are we setting for our children and future leaders if we spew out the same hate to the oppressors that they've spewed out first?  Then it just becomes a giant pissing contest.  While it is true that we are fighting for the equality of all, especially for the entire black population, it is no one's right to decide whose life is more important than another's.  We cannot fight this epidemic with more hate, it needs to be smothered with love.  We need to be the difference, the opposition, the light.  

No argument ever finds resolution when two parties scream nonsense at each other.  An argument only reaches its end when one person shows compassion, forgiveness, and compromise.  Why is this any different?  It's just on a larger scale.  

Love one another.  It's the easiest thing in the world to do.  I mean I can't even believe conversations like this one need to be had, but I cannot be afraid for my life anymore if I want to go see a new Pixar movie, and that is just an inkling of the kind of every day life so many of our black brothers and sisters have to live, and I can't stand one more day of it.