I believe in an America

I believe in an America, where we can say what we want, as long as it does not present a clear and present danger.
I believe in an America, where we as citizens deal with the consequences of our actions.
I believe in an America, that is not held hostage by the local media and what they decide to show.
I believe in an America, where we deal more with a person's heart, than their sound system.
I believe in an America, where we recognize the sacrifices that people made, and give them honor because of it.
I believe in an America, where we hold true to our values, but are open-minded enough to listen to new ideas.
I believe in an America, where we show compassion and mercy to not just our neighbors, but our enemies as well.
I believe in an America, where we strive to do better, work harder, and not make the same mistakes.
I believe in an America, where we are more obessed with helping our neighbors, than what dress a celebrity is wearing.
I believe in an America, where the presidental choices are more than picking "the lesser of two evils".
I believe in an America, where we don't ask what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country. 
I believe in an America, where we can work past our differences to remove this hatred from our country.
I believe in an America, where we can come together as ONE people united by a common goal.
I believe in an America, where we can stand and sing so proudly "I'm proud to be an American".
Most importantly, I believe in an America, that is still roaring and alive with hope.
I believe in this America. Even though I can not see it, I know it is still here. From the fireworks of July 4th, to the dinners of thanksgiving day, freedom and good will still exist. This is the America I believe in. Now it's up to all of us, to show the world that this America still exist.

Shattering Terrorist Myths in the U.S

So today I ask you a question: How are these terror attacks becoming such a common thing? Ever since 1999 it seems like the U.S. is littered with attacks. Today we are going to break some of the terror myths.
"Terrorist only work in large groups like Isis, and AL Qaeda."  The main problem with these attacks is that they are leaning less from a group or country, and more to fed up individuals.  According to independent.co.uk in a time period of just a few years 63 incidents were associated with groups like the Islamic state, while Right wing extremist (mostly white supremacist) were responsible for 116 attacks in the same amount of time. That is almost double the amount of the group incidents. Also 76 % of Islamic attacks were reported thwarted compared to 35% of the extremist attacks. What am I saying here? I'm saying that because they don't work with a select known terrorist group, they are a lot harder to identify, and are having more attacks. So let's just call that myth done.

"Terrorist are only from other countries"  116 attacks were from U.S citizens with extreme political leanings. U.S. Citizens.

"Terrorism just suddenly appeared." There have been small terrorist attacks throughout U.S. history. No one really thought too much about it until 9/11. It is kinda like racism. It still existed after the 1960s political movements, but because people have only until recently (I say that term loosely) been able to get their thoughts out through social media, and have gotten more aggressive about it. It still existed it just wasn't widely broadcasted.

So the real question is why do we feel like we have to hurt people who don't agree with us?  How can I explain this to my younger friends? How about to my future kids? What if they are gay? How do you explain this as if its normal? We need to learn to settle our differences non-violently. We need to push our law makers harder to get something done about guns.(I'm not liberal or conservative on this issue, I just know something needs to be done.) We need to teach our people that this isn't right. Because a lot of this stuff can be chalked up to how people were raised. We need to get back to being okay with different opinions, and welcome debate. We need to stop putting off these things, otherwise this issue will never get better. There will always be disgruntled people, but we need to teach them, that this behavior helps almost no one. That the biggest thing they change is the amount of people in a family, and where people can live. We as a country need to learn how to get along together again. Otherwise we might be another short lived Roman empire. We will collapse on ourselves.