In the past few months, protesting for racial equality has become extremely prevalent.

The first recent event began in Ferguson, in which a white cop shot an African American man. Immediately, citizens of the US began to protest in outrage of this “racial injustice.”

More recently, an African American man passed away from a spinal injury after being arrested, allegedly due to police brutality and neglect.

I can understand being upset, and wanting to voice your opinions, which is why peaceful protests exist.  What I do not get is ruining the town that thousands of people live in. I feel sorry for the number of innocent peoples’ lives that are being ruined day by day as strangers come and jeopardize the citizens’ safety.

People that travel from other cities and states just to come and riot on the streets of Baltimore, burning cars and damaging buildings, make the situation even worse. Instead of helping to fix the problem, you are destroying their town, terrifying children and ultimately distracting from the real problem.

When a situation gets so bad that the state has to call in the National Guard just to protect citizens and property, that is when people need to realize at this point what they are doing is not benefiting the cause, but making it worse.

What I feel is that people start off with peaceful protests, causing no harm and simply stating their point. Unfortunately, the media never seems to be as interested in these peaceful ways as they are when violence happens. This leads to people getting impatient and feeling as if no one is listening to what they have to say, resulting in violence that is sure to catch people’s attention.

If there was a way to help those people that feel ignored and therefore calm the storm, I feel that protests would continue to stay peaceful.

Social media only makes matters worse, helping to spread rumors or edited video clips, making people believe in something that may not be entirely true, or is missing a part of the story.

If we can take away the specific events, look at the bigger picture and find the overall problem that needs to be fixed regarding the issue, I feel like we would be able to find a happy medium for everyone.

So instead of focusing on all the things that are wrong and complaining about it, think of ways to fix it. Otherwise nothing is going to change.