Find our voice, come from love

A lot of unsettling things have happened in the past week or so. Brock Turner's mild slap on the wrist, voter fraud and the massacre in Orlando have been quite the hot topics. Social media can be an incredible tool to promote awareness and move us towards change in a more positive direction. Due to the Brock Turner sentence, people are having a deeper discussion on rape culture. This case is a perfect example - he was the perpetrator, but his father, his friends and he himself tried to convince us that he's the victim - I guess they convinced the judge.  This case brought to light the injustice that pervades our legal system. People should feel uncomfortable, they should get riled up - it's something that must change. It is NEVER o.k. to sexually assault another - yet it's occurring every day.

There have been so many instances of voter fraud. One person filmed that every time they tried to vote for Bernie Sanders, their electronic vote would go to some other candidate whose name I haven't heard of. There were personal stories of people going to multiple polling places, but they all had run out of ballots. The system is either massively flawed or it is rigged - I'm guessing it's a combination of both. This should stir people up, it should get them talking - it's something that needs to change. Our vote is meant to count.

The Orlando massacre is another sad and tragic situation. A lot of people, who were out for a fun night of dancing, leave behind grief-stricken family and friends. This should shake people up - it is something that needs to change. It is NEVER o.k. to hurt other people to satisfy a vendetta.

On all of these topics, people have taken to social media to express their views and opinions. What's disheartening is so many are contributing more energy to the ugliness. The victim blamers and shamers added their 2 cents. A good deal of Trump, Clinton, Sanders supporters had their say, mainly by bashing each other. The anti-Muslim, anti-LGBT and anti-guns are all finger pointing. People are so caught up clinging to their beliefs and going at each other that we're ignoring the bigger picture that needs to change.

We must stop grouping people and labeling or defining them by their gender, ethnicity, religion, social caste, sexuality, political view or culture. A person, is a person, is a person.  What motivates someone to walk up and kill another or go into a crowd and open fire? What motivates a person to physically and sexually harm another? What we're seeing in the news today are not isolated cases. We've seen them in the past and we'll continue to see them in the future until we, as a society, do better. We need to acknowledge how desensitized we have become. All you have to do is turn on a movie, t.v. show or video game - most of which propagate physical and sexual violence. As I was doing some research for this blog entry, I went to the BBC site. Their top stories: the Orlando massacre, violence at the Euro 2016, a Dutch woman convicted by the Qatari court for sex outside of marriage (her drink was spiked and she was raped) and a Canadian hostage killed by a militant group. Yes, it is time for us to do better, to BE better. We must hold each other accountable, promote the best of our humanity and we must come from a place of LOVE - not hate. I leave you with Lin-Manuel Miranda's beautiful words from his acceptance speech at the Tony Awards.

Love, Adrienne :)