A Happy Medium by Erin Murtaugh

I’ve been debating writing this column for a while, but I’ve finally decided to do it. More and more frequently there have been news stories about someone’s life being taken for the wrong reason. Let me tell you something. All lives matter.

Police lives matter. Law enforcement personnel put their lives at risk every day to protect ours. Sometimes, they end up getting shot or hurt, which turns out to be fatal, all while performing their job. Their lives matter immensely.

Military lives matter. I’ve seen some controversy over movies like “American Sniper” posted on social media lately. Movies are movies, and they depict the story the best they can, but sometimes details need to be changed. I’m tired of it. Military members also put their lives at risk for our freedom every day. Their lives most definitely matter.

Black lives matter. Protests all over the nation happened because of African-Americans being wrongly killed. This is sad and unfortunate. The thing is though, their lives matter just as much as anyone else. Protests usually just turn to more violence, and it isn’t worth that.

White lives matter. You hear someone say “well if he was white he wouldn’t have been shot,” when it comes to scenarios like I just mentioned. Woah, not true. If someone is doing something wrong, and a police officer feels their life or someone else’s is at risk, chances are they’re going to shoot. That’s what they are trained to do.

All walks of life matter. People of all races matter. Animals matter. Children matter. Adults matter. Journalists matter. Teachers matter. When it comes down to it, everyone matters. Let’s stop getting angry over things like this and learn to understand that everyone is important. All lives matter.

 

Albert Lea High School graduate Erin Murtaugh is a first-year student at Rochester Community and Technical College. She can be reached at murtaugh.erin@gmail.com.