nonfiction
It Starts with Us
By Brianna DeWitt
There are many things wrong with this world . It does not take hours of scanning CNN to find stories of murder , slavery , homelessness , poverty , and injustice . Stories of joy and hope are difficult , sometimes even impossible , to find on major news sources .
Pointing fingers comes easily . Murder ? It is the murder ’ s fault , of course . Slavery ? The problem lies in the hearts of those who enslave others ; and so on and so forth . We point fingers at individual people or maybe groups , ones with skewed values and a misunderstanding of what it means to value fellow human beings .
When it comes to slavery , we blame society ’ s devaluing of human beings and sex . We blame hard hearts , inability to love and be loved , and those who turn a blind eye to a problem that may be directly in front of them .
Maybe the problem is not so easy to find though . Or rather , it is TOO easy to find , yet hard to recognize … and even harder to admit .
Because what if the problem is me ? And you ? My mother , your best friend , the barista with the friendly smile ? What if we ’ re the ones to blame , at least in part , for the millions of people enslaved all over the world ?
The thought alone alarms me , causes me to look around the room for someone
Artwork by Ryan Hanberry
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