America: A Country Drowning In Fear

Americans have an amazing thing called pride. We believe in ourselves full-heartedly, as we should, and it allows us to strap on our boots and go into war with our brothers and sisters and fight for what we believe. As a country, we have been changing the world one generation after another. We started with the revolution from England, then came the Model T Ford, then Do-Op music, then Elvis, fast-forward now with the iPhone. We are a country of change, of growth, of dreaming big and accomplishing whatever it may be that we set our minds to.

Yet it feels like we have fallen a bit; stumbled in our journey towards constant self-discovery. We have been through a lot, a Great Depression, multiple wars, attacks on home soil, countless leaders who have guided us through it all, and now we find ourselves here. We are afraid. Unfortunately, after 9/11 we did not recover, we are still bruised, but not beaten. We find ourselves in an age where the threat of attack is constant, so we live in a world of fear.

/a>We are afraid to travel, we are afraid to use public transportation, we are afraid of religions, we are afraid of cultures. We are afraid.

Now all of that, in a way, makes sense. We have been hit where we thought we never would, and the recovery from that is slow.  Yet when I read the article today about a University Student who was threatened to be thrown out of a meeting because she violated the ‘Safe Space' policy at her school, by raising her hand, I couldn't take it anymore.

Have we forgotten what we stand for? Safety is important, I truly believe that. Yet how can we come to the point when raising a hand is violating a policy for a school? How is that endangering someones space and making it “unsafe”? Schools are designed to learn, to ask questions, to debate, to discover not only yourself, but what you believe in. How can you do that if raising your hand is banned?

We need to stop being afraid of everything. We need to get our pride back and strap on those boots that we are keeping in the closet and fight for what we believe in. We do not back down, we do not give up, we do not fall. We have spent too much time trying to blame our fear on the wrong things. Immigrants, being politically correct, gun control, etc. Those aren't the things that we are afraid of. There are people in this world who just want to see the world burn. They want to cause as much pain and hurt as they can, and we as American's have always been the ones that have stopped them, have stood against them.

Let's stop being afraid, and fight, like we always have, for the way this country should be.