Atlanta

Asian-Americans do not deserve to live in fear. Last week, a series of mass shootings occurred in Atlanta. Of the eight people who died, six were Asian women. The person who committed this crime, Robert Long, is only 21 years old. He supposedly targeted those spas because he was a sex addict and felt that those locations were a temptation to him. Additionally, he probably targeted Asian people because of all the recent hate being directed towards them regarding COVID-19. That’s what he might have been thinking - that he was wiping out a place of sin and temptation while also cleaning the country by killing the people responsible for bringing the virus to America.

We have to show these haters how they can live better lives. We need to let them know that there are alternatives to killing others and that they can get help and learn how to operate the world in a positive way. We, as a nation, also need to stop saying hateful things about one another. If you say that Asians are no good and that they are responsible for the pandemic in America, you’re legitimizing the hatred. People are going to pick up on that, especially troubled people like Robert Long, and they might begin to think that it’s okay to kill and get rid of that minority group. We need to stand up against hate and preach inclusion and compassion in our daily lives. We need to set the example. America is not founded on hate; it is founded on love.

Back in the day, white people were on top and everybody else was at the bottom. Although it wasn’t a good time, it was a stable time. People were able to send their children out to play on the streets and call them back in for supper. However, you can’t do that anymore; there’s too much danger lurking around. People have a reason to want to go back to the old ways because back then, society was more stable. In terms of looking at it now, we need a society that is not only stable, but inclusive as well. We need to do a better job at practicing inclusion and to do so, we need to create emotionally safe places where people can sit down and talk to one another in an honest way. We also need to come up with ways to make democracy better. If we can’t show people how to solve their problems, people have no reason to be loyal to democracy. Why should they be loyal to a democracy that offers them nothing? Why should they be loyal when people are getting shot left and right? Why should they be loyal when they can’t even send their children out to play without fear of them being killed? People feel helpless living in a society where they have to be afraid every time they step outside. We need to start creating solutions so that groups of innocent people, like Asian-Americans, won’t be targeted, and we need these solutions to not be based off of hate and violence. We can’t survive in a world that’s ruled by prejudice, so we need to start asking ourselves how we can make America a more inclusive nation for everyone. Inclusion and diversity can be achieved. We just need to start talking about it and open up a dialogue so people can communicate freely without judgement.