WE

We

More than 200 years ago a document was signed that defined the fate of a country. It began with, “We the people. . .” From these three words a small group of people were able to change the world they lived in, not as individuals, but as a united body of people.

                Today there are still flaws with this government and many other flaws still persist in the world due to the acts of others. Yet there are those who try to rectify these issues simply by addressing the problem. “Those people are doing it wrong,” you might hear them say or “people like that have to change.” Regardless of the subject, whether it is something so severe as politics or something as simple as grammar, there is in fact something wrong. But it is not the problem itself; it is how we address the problem. For it is not people who are doing it wrong or people who have to change. We are wrong, and we have to change. We decide over 200 years ago that we would work together to rectify our problems. If we are disassociating ourselves from others by speaking in terms like this, then we are not working together. We need to learn from each other, to communicate with each other, to aid each other and work as a single body. Not as a body split in two. It is said by one of our greatest president, Abraham, Lincoln, that, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” To act against a community without communication, compassion, or understanding is to stand against it.

                No individual can change the course of history. No individual can rectify all the faults that are continually present in the world. But together we can. So next time you feel yourself about to say, “People like that are wrong,” or, “people like that need to change” please stop yourself. Talk with those people. Try to teach them why they are wrong. And instead say “We are wrong,” or, “We need to change.” Because it is only together that we the people can make this world into the one we dream of. . . no one can do it by themselves.