I Cannot Live Without Books

Take a knee. Take a knee for the black men and women who have been shot down in the streets for the color of their skin. Take a knee for the young black boys and girls who grow up in a world where they have to be taught exactly how to act around police because otherwise they may get shot. Take a knee for Colin Kaepernick, an athlete who has the nerve to peacefully and silently protest, yet because of that he is being discriminated against and bullied. 

Take a knee in the best way you know how. That may mean kneeling during the national anthem, it may not. No one should kneel because of pressure. There are other ways to support the movement.  Write a letter. Make a donation. Stand by the black community, stand by the black lives matter movement. 

There is something wrong, hateful, and cruel going on in this country. Freedom is broken. It is our job, our right, to fix it. 

Take a chance. Take a stand. Take a knee. 

Terrorism. Racism. White supremacy. 

These words attempt to summarize but cannot possibly describe the horrifying events that occurred in Charlottesville this past weekend. Hatred and bigotry have no place in our country, yet they are still being practiced by neo-Nazis and white nationalists. 

White supremacists need to be condemned for their hateful beliefs. The people who protested against them are brave in ways I greatly admire. So why is it that the president claims there are two sides to the story? Why is the leader of our country refusing to hold these terrible people accountable? 

There is one side. There is the side of hatred, racism, and anger. There is the side of flags with swastikas, white masks, and torches. 

I am outraged. I am heartbroken. I am afraid. Right now my biggest fear is that, as a white person, I’m not doing enough. But my fears are nothing compared to the fears of black people my age.

Our country is falling apart. Not because of, as the president says, “beautiful statues” that are being taken down. Our country is falling apart because people still define their peers by the color of their skin. 

Transgender rights are human rights. 

Transgender rights are human rights. 

Transgender rights are human rights. 

I want to scream this from the rooftops. I want to write on walls, paint it on ceilings, and staple it across the sky. I want to write these words in permanent marker all over the Oval Office. I want to write these words everywhere possible, because they are so, so true. 

Personally, I have never wanted to join the military. War is a horrible thing that I like to avoid thinking about. Plus, it has totally scared me ever since I saw Saving Private Ryan. 

But some people want to fight for their country. They want to serve, they want to protect, they want to help. They throw themselves in harm’s way in order to protect our freedom and our lives. And that is a beautiful thing. 

Not only is it beautiful, but it is a basic human right. A right that belongs to anybody and everybody who is a citizen of the United States. 

The president has announced that transgender people will no longer be permitted to enlist in the United States military. And I could not be more appalled or disgusted. 

To take this right away because of someone’s gender identity is biased, inhumane, and just plain cruel. 

Transgender people show incredible courage every time they leave their houses. They have been treated horribly just for being who they are, and that is something we cannot forget. Transgender people belong alongside everybody else. Just because they are different does not make them wrong or unequal. 

If a person that is openly transgender want to join the military, than he or she should be allowed to do so. It is not an extra expense or a burden to have transgender people enlist in the military. The military is lucky to have strong, brave, courageous people, no matter their gender history. 

It is so, so simple. Transgender rights are human rights.