In my 17 years I've been alive, I know I haven't seen much, but I've seen enough to know that there's a lot of things wrong with this world. I know that people rarely agree on anything and when something bad happens, we immediately look for someone to blame. I know that people hate other people for things as insignificant as their race, religion, or gender. And I know that some things are more acceptable when a white man does it than when a person of another color or gender or religion does the same thing. 

I know that in this past year, there have been 307 mass shootings in the U.S. alone [1]. 
I know that out of every 1,000 rape cases, 994 rapists walk free [2]. 
I know that more Americans are killed by other Americans than terrorists every year. 
And I know a world full of so much fear and hate, isn't a place I want to live. 

It seems that every week, we are faced with a new tragedy. Someone planted a bomb. Someone opened fire on civilians. Sexual allegations have come forth. When will it end? What used to be a blaring alarm has dulled into a soft ringing- hardly more than background noise. 

What has happened to us? Have we become so desensitized that we can't discern the difference between the guns on video games and the guns that take real lives? Have we become so desensitized that when a woman says she has been raped, we say just she's looking for attention? When did it all this become part of our daily lives? Is it possible we could be the way we are because of our leaders? 

On October first, a gunman opened fire on civilians in Las Vegas. He killed 58 people and injured 546. This isn't called an act of terrorism. Our president responded by staying relatively quiet, blaming mental illness, and doing nothing in regard to reconsidering gun control. 

Flash forward a few weeks to Halloween. A Muslim man drives a truck in a bike lane in New York City. Eight people are killed, a dozen more are injured. This is called an act of terrorism. Our president responded by taking to social media, calling this man an animal, and calling for tighter immigration laws to keep out all people from the Middle East. This is all done in a series of five Tweets [3]. 

It brings to question: How do our leaders influence us? How does blaming mental illness for acts of violence affect how we perceive people with mental illnesses? How does blaming an entire race for one man’s actions affect how we see everyone else? 

As a nation, we spend so much time being scared of everyone and worrying about things that will seem ridiculous and foolish 50 years from now. We never slow down. We never stop. We never listen. We never think. We just do. And that's a scary thought. 

In America, we have the privilege of choosing our leaders so we can have a say in how our government operates. In the 2016 election, only 59% of eligible voters went to the polls to cast their vote [4]. The other 41% did what? Sat at home and told themselves whatever happened wouldn’t affect them? 

But our leaders do affect us- all of us. Leaders affect how we perceive the world and how the world perceives us. Our leaders are not just figureheads. They play an important role and it's up to us to decide whether it will be positive or negative. The only way we can do that is if we get a conversation going. What can be better? What can we do to make it better? 

In the end, it's better to say you did something to make a change instead of admitting to sitting back and hoping someone else would do it so you didn't have to.