To whom it may concern,

If I were to give you a twelve paged angry rant cursing you for being alive or not doing something you shouldn't have, how would that make you feel? What would you think of me? It’d be pretty disrespectful,wouldn’t it? Why do people disrespect others? It could be a variety of reasons. It could be because some of us weren’t taught to respect others in our childhood years, or because we were taught to or grew to not trust certain people and thus, disrespect them. Or maybe it’s something we picked up from a certain family member or character from a television show. If everyone was taught how to respect one another from childhood, we wouldn’t have so many people constantly committing crimes and wrong acts because of a lack of respect.

It’s no secret that the lack of empathy and respect is the main cause of bullying, but what about other problems? If you think about it, it could very well be the cause of sexual abuse,  domestic violence, people being bigoted and racist, racial profiling, social profiling, LGBT discrimination, gang violence, drug abuse and many more problems. Women  are sexually assaulted because of a lack of respect for women. Parents abuse their children because they have no respect for them. Students disrespect teachers for the same reason. Though some of these issues may seem minor, they're all interconnected to form a bigger picture. We need to slow down and come to one another for help.

Kids are looking at crazy stuff even on G-rated channels like the local news. Instead of trying to shield our children from the dangers of the world, we should be teaching them to cope with the problems of the world and live through them like we have. What real reason do we have to treat each other like crap? What reason is there for us to sit back and feel helpless as the world develops new problems with each passing day?

 Even in our country's election right now, we look at the debates as childish bickering and nonsense. . I thought it was a joke at first. "Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton? You're kidding, right?" Nope. I know I speak for many people when I say I'm truly terrified for my country and it's people. It's not because of the election exactly, but because I haven't seen any positive change around my area since I was a small child. My heart breaks for the issues of Flint, my city, Michigan, my state, and America, my country.  Isn't it strange that America, one of the richest countries in the world, is up to its chin in debt? Isn't it wrong that we live in a society that teaches women not to get raped instead of teaching men not to rape? I know that most of these problems have nothing to do with your line of work, but everyone can do something. I want you to please take these problems into account. We can find a solution together. We need to learn respect before we can achieve peace. All of that starts by making good roll models for people to follow.

Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,

Ella