Free write on nonviolence in our community

            Every day I wake up and see on the news that someone got killed, shot, or robbed. It is always something negative and it always seems to be in the Oakland/Alameda area. I am tired of living in a city that is known as one of the most dangerous cities in the US. Every day I step out of my house with the fear that I may never get to see my family ever again. No one should ever have to live with that fear.

           Whenever something bad and violent happens people react to it with more violence. For example, when Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a Bart police officer; people went out on the streets to protest. Many of these people did not even know who Oscar Grant was. They just took his death as an excuse to go out on the streets and cause trouble. This violence was useless; it did not do anything, things were not made better, if anything things were made worse. With no consideration or respect for the young man's parents these people vandalized police cars and local stores. The family of Oscar Grant had to come out in public and ask the people to stop the violence. His mother said that this is not how she wanted the death of her son to be remembered. She did not want people to cause any more trouble. The violence eventually stopped, but people kept protesting his death.

         Instead of using violence, people could follow the examples of great public leaders such as Gandhi, Mother Terissa, or Martin Luther King Jr. These people fought for people's rights in nonviolent ways. Gandhi fought for the rights of Indians, Mother Terissa fought for woman's rights and Martin Luther King Jr. fought for the rights of African-Americans. All of these leaders did not use violence, but instead they used their words to persuade and convince other people to fight for their causes. This same concept could be used and incorporated today to solve and prevent future problems from occurring. Instead of using violence we can work together to fix problems that affect us and our community. Together we can work on projects that raise awareness about problems that we all face. We can help stop the violence that keeps us locked in our houses fearing about what might happen.

           Like Gandhi once said, “Be the change that you want to see.” In order to make that change I think that we should come together as one strong community. We are all each others brothers and sisters and we should look out for each other. What is the point of fighting or killing each other for dumb reasons such as my street is better than yours or I represent this color. There is no point in this. The only thing it is good for is for tearing up families and causing harm to innocent people. We should look pass our differences and look ahead to a better future. Would like your children and grand children to live in a place where they are likely to be harmed. I know I would not. That is why we have set our differences apart and work on making this place better for us, our children and grand children.