Valentina Del Pino/Contributing Writer
Bombs here, killers there, hate everywhere. Baghdad, Brussels, France, Libya and the Ivory Coast are some of the countries that had been targeted with awful atrocities in these past months between the end of 2015 and the new year.
Is this going to stop? Will we ever be safe again? Many of my peers wonder. FIU Department of English professor Kathleen McCormack attempted to devise an answer to the question through a discussion with her students.
“Truly, it is way more complicated than anything we can come up with.” McCormack said.
After some heated discussion, the class came to an answer: Hate is the product of ignorance and fear.
We all have felt it. We all have hated something or someone in our lives, it’s human. We have hated due to the influence of our family, our ideologies or simply because something goes against our upbringing or our culture. It is truly normal to not like something.
Watching the news to realise the great amount of support Trump’s campaign has received is truly terrifying – not only for American history, but also for the world. To think people my age really agree with what Trump says makes me anxious. Trump is perpetuating ideas that are exactly what is wrong with the world right now. He is feeding the public the fear of cultures that are not “ours” and that we do not understand. His campaign is full of ignorance of the outside, for what is not “American.”
The only way we can stop hate is to fight ignorance. An open-minded person will never hate another based on their beliefs, even if that person does not agree with them. It’s okay to dislike things or people; it’s okay to not agree with people with other religions. An education is needed in order to respect and accept one another.
Education is needed to open our minds to the unknown and respect it.
So there you have it: the solution to the terrorist attacks. We must end hate. I truly am grateful for FIU, and its international community. One day you walk through GC and you find Haitian Community Club sharing their music and their food and the next day you find people dancing tango. These types of things don’t happen in other universities and as the FIU community we should not take this for granted.
If you look around while being on campus, you will find diversity all around you. Being this diverse helps us be kind to people, being open-minded help us be friendlier and care for things others do not understand.
I am not trying to say FIU is the answer to world peace, but it does provide its with students the tools necessary to be kinder and nicer to people no matter their race, religion or sexuality. FIU students should take advantage of these tools and promote kindness. An education that introduces diversity into the daily lives of students is the end of war and hate. FIU is doing the right thing starting with us.
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of FIU Student Media Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
Image courtesy of Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/theloushe/4404363038/in/photolist-c5PaSb-7Hdaps-jkZRW-jok6o6-7HcvW9-7Hcuys-bYESdY-jm1F3-6np1y4-jomb8H-bE7VVP-eS5yW4-bE7jqM-q7dBdS-8WmYaF-7H8Ab4-6boQXE-oVuQJg-jojKMT-PH49j-6JQ5yQ-7H8zUr-jomD7J-jokfFe-7HcuBG-jm2CQ-jm1uQ-prMQyJ-eSgZYs-jomnEv-5Tr39P-jm1HA-7H8zyi-PH4ih-68iwuM-9bvBhx-7Hcvzq-jm355-7HcvFL-jomF63-8g8BHm-jon5B1-7HcuPA-aVn4Dg-7H8A2x-eS5y1r-7HcvjA-7H8A7n-jonPus-7H8zFv
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