When our reality becomes so unsightly, we tend to deny the outcomes because we are ashamed to see the mess we have made. Reality has become too hard to accept because the issues in our nation have brought us to not be able to agree to disagree with our opinions. In today’s society, we find ourselves never being able to talk about issues that affect us negatively, but rather starting something chaotic because we get so caught up in our own points of view—but in our communities, we should come together and address these problems, such as gun violence, racism, and religion, as best as we could, so they can get fixed and not continue to grow. But our biggest question right now, is how? How do we get everyone to understand and listen to one another?
As we get into our most sensitive topics of today’s issues, one of our biggest problems is not taking into consideration what others have already been through. The word racism has been flourishing in the media for what we can consider, too long. African Americans have been dealing with racial profiling, attacks, teasing, and death because of their skin color. In an article shared from CNN, explains that “a white student at Yale called police because a black student was napping in a dorm building.” (Yan) When a small issue like this happens to someone, it is hard to believe that there is room for the slightest change. Aside from someone you catch on the street saying something disrespectful, our president, Trump “appears to be unifying America — unifying Americans in their denial. The more racist Mr. Trump sounds, the more Trump country denies his racism, and the more his opponents look away from their own racism to brand Trump country as racist. (Kendi) Making it more difficult for us to see our faults as a nation. Rachel Godsil, a researcher apart of an organization who helps reduce discrimination explains, “There are enormous health consequences to those experiencing these everyday harms… because of the constancy of this stress.” For those who have never experienced such a thing cannot relate to what these people go through. Racism is a never-ending cycle that has to be addressed before we have more people suffering this pain that brings us this rage that no one can understand.
People do not seem to realize how closely each of these issues relate to one another. We reached the era where nearly 40,000 people have died from guns in the United States. In an article it states, “this is the highest than any other since at least 1968, according to new data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.” (Mervosh) Which I believe will dramatically continue to grow. “Pro-gun advocates see guns as our best defense against armed criminals. Anti-gun advocates see the wide availability of guns as a greater threat than criminal violence. The issue seems to come down to what you fear more: criminals or guns.” (Gutting) Coming into the problem of, who is right, and who is wrong? People believe that the ones who should be allowed to carry a gun be certified, but even the ones who are supposed to be “protecting” us from the criminals, are the ones shooting us for no reason. So, when we come down to think of where we can come together and think of a solution, that is where most of us fail to agree to disagree.
As case numbers go up from unjustified police shootings, to mass killings, it brings us to a difficult decision whether guns should be allowed at all or not. After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, “House of Representatives held its first hearing on gun violence in eight years.” (Collins) Where it was thought to make it harder for people to purchase guns without well done background checks. “Senator Murphy believes the endless rejection of any gun legislation looks like a kind of “moral green light” to potential killers: “I truly believe these young men who have something very dark happening in their minds watch our silence and interpret it as an endorsement.” Meaning, if we keep these guns that is a way of lessening our crime rate for the next following years. People feel safe with guns but when will it be okay to own one without abusing your right to own one? We have heard these stories of people using their gun way too often it’s no surprise anymore.
Religion is an issue that ties to many problems emotionally. Not so long ago, our president, Donald Trump has brought attention to whether the government will continue to fund planned parenthood. Aside from planned parenthood being one of the top places specifically where young women go to have an abortion, they allow you to get a screening for any STI, plan B pills, birth control pills, and most importantly, where they get access to health care services. The biggest problem with why they do not want to keep funding is because of the abortion service. There has been discussion on “Pro-life or pro-choice.” Watson, author of Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion states, “We should be able to acknowledge the complexity of private decision making, without threatening the right of private decision making.” Meaning, us as a community should find ways in which we can accept what is going on without having to do things like, defund because we are not happy with a decision. For example, in an article published in 1989, Lucy Killea, who was running for California State Senate, put in her campaign that she supports the right to abortion. Bishop Leo T. Maher later wrote her saying she could no longer receive communion. Looking at this example from years ago, and now seeing that Trump is defunding Planned Parenthood shows that throughout the years, nothing exactly changes. The people who agree with Trump, who in a study from Mary Rezac, showed that 47% of Catholics are pro-life, will continue to support his ideas but what about the other half? Where do they fall in this discussion? Abortion is up to the women, her body, her choice and if we cannot find a way to talk about how these issues are affecting us, the government will not fund what is helping these girls who get pregnant.
Another growing issue within religion is the number count of r**es within the Vatican. People see the church as a sacred place to go for a time of help or to praise our savior, Jesus Christ, but recently they have found the priests, the ones we should trust, have been r**ing the altar servers. Pope Francis took the issue into his own hands, and people were not satisfied with the outcome of his speech. Before he can even finish what was being said, the ones who were victims of such abuse were expressing their anger and failure to address the problem. This brings out attention to the issue that we in reality, need. Without people expressing how they feel, how will anyone know it needs to be done? Victims need to come together and express what happened to them so justice can be done. Anna Barrett Doyle states, “As the world’s Catholics cry out for concrete change, the pope instead provides tepid promises, all of which we’ve heard before.” This becomes an issue when trying to solve problems because as soon as we get the idea that something will happen and it doesn’t, that starts even bigger problems like riots and controversial articles. As a community we fail at trying to express our feelings towards an issue. When one encounters someone with the opposing view, we tend to find ourselves loss of words when they don’t agree with what we believe. If we do not get to the root of the problem, the problem will never be able to go away. Pope Francis believes he is making a change, but he is only making it more difficult for Roman Catholics to believe what is really going on within the church.
In result, we have found that one of our biggest issues as a nation is coming together and seeing our most troublesome issues embellish when we least expect. If we do not try to come together and resolve these problems, we will never see the end of racism, gun violence, or our biggest issues in religion. We are always going to be so caught up in our own point of view that no matter how we try to end the controversy, it will continue to grow right in front of our eyes. We need to be willing to agree to disagree to even begin to address these problems. Most of these issues correlate with one another, so if we begin to eliminate as time progresses, these issues shouldn’t be as big as a problem as they are today. We are in a time of need for help. We need to keep working together.
2019-2-25-1551077395