This blue planet of ours is a complicated place. It always has been, and it always will be. It has ups, downs, shifts, turns, progressions, and backtracking. Our world is never purely black and white. However, I feel that in the past couple of years, the state of the Earth has been leaning towards one direction and I don’t believe it’s for the better. Now don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that everybody in the world should march the streets with signs saying “PREPARE FOR DOOM” but I will admit I spend a fair bit of time thinking about the future and worrying about it.

There are many catastrophes happening around the world right now. Due to the global warming and rising temperatures, fires bigger than the state of Maryland are burning in Australia, killing more than half a billion animals. These rising temperatures are also causing the Arctic to melt at an accelerated rate.

There is corruption and injustice in world governments. In China, Muslim people are being sent to interment camps and are taught to give up their religion and customs for their government. At the time I am writing this, a million or more Muslim minorities have been sent to these camps, separating thousands from their children.

Even in America, our President is being tried for impeachment since he tried to force the government of Ukraine to give him information on a Democratic presidential candidate Whether you agree or disagree with President Trump’s policies, I am not criticizing you. However, you must know that more evidence is coming forward proving that he committed a crime in office. For example, a Ukrainian man named Lev Parnas, who worked with the President’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, went on various news sources and corroborated the accusations against Donald Trump. He also gave evidence of this to congress.
I could go on about these disasters, injustices and betrayals for hours; however, what I want to focus on instead is what we can do about it.

I believe that it is the duty of every American citizen to be aware of issues going on in the world. I think that one of the biggest problems with our society today is that people are blind to the plights of America and other countries. I am not saying that everyone in America is like this. I know that many people in this country care and think about the problems we face today, and I am not saying that everyone needs to check the news 24/7 (especially because of how biased news is nowadays.) My point is that I feel that if we as a society become mostly ignorant then the future will not be as bright as we hope.

This is where our generation has to step up. We need to understand the problems of the world in order to understand the solution. We cannot afford to be divided over political parties and polarized due to our differing viewpoints. The citizens of America need to understand how ignorance and close-mindedness could lead to the world becoming a worse place than we could have ever imagined.