Dear America, 
I’ve finally realized.  
You practically rule the world, and yet. School shootings are normalized. Violence is familiar. Children play among chaos, even as their fellow kin are ruined by you.  
Some try to help, but nothing has been done.  
Anyone can get a weapon – it's their “right”.  
Rape, abuse, assault, shootings, kidnappings, murder, xenophobia, racism, homophobia. And yet.  
You’re seen as the Golden Country. A ticket to wealth and good health. The Promised Land. But what do those people get when they finally arrive? The next generation is born into a cycle of broken homes and spirits. How can they escape? 
Lies. Exaggerations. Assumptions. Tales of glory. Only the good parts; Hollywood and Broadway. Celebrities post about their glamorous lives. But most Americans do not lead these lives. Instead... 
Children get used to lockdown drills. I got used to lockdown drills. I got used to many things that I now see should not happen; I’m five years old, standing outside my school, clutching my backpack. “What’s going on?” I ask, watching police sirens flashing. “They found a bomb,” my mom tells me. We drive home early. 
I’m seven, quivering beside a toilet as I huddle on the floor, the rest of my classmates around me. It’s a school shooter drill, just in case. I didn’t find out until years later that the rest of the world doesn’t do this nearly as often as you do. 
I’m nine and my best friend’s family offers to bring me out to a shooting range with them, to hang out. My best friend and I watch a movie in the car, bullets firing in the background. We block it all out and laugh.  
The summer when I’m nine, I visit Europe for the first time. They have no signs saying guns aren’t allowed. They have no mass shootings, no one running around every day and murdering innocents. It’s peaceful. Better. 
I’m ten, watching through a crack in the door as a man threatens my father, saying he’s going to get his gun. My father stands still, calm, rational, unruffled. My heart pounds, palms sweaty, and I have to remind myself that my dad was in the military. We call the police. 
You had a joke for a president, a rapist as a ruler. This is who your people chose. What does that say about your teachings, preachings?  
And yet.  
School shootings: Virginia Tech, 55 victims either injured or dead. Sandy Hook Elementary, 26 people dead, mostly children. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 17 people killed. Columbine shooting, 13 people killed, at least 20 more wounded. And yet.  
You care more about protecting your children from “different” love than you care about protecting them from the onslaught of bullets. The “Don’t Say Gay” bill is meant to shield them, but there’s nothing about gun rights, is there? Your children, our children, don’t need protection from love. They need to be able to go to school without the fear of being killed. 
The 2017 Las Vegas shooting killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds. A man was shooting from the 32nd floor during a music festival. How was a person like him allowed access to a murder weapon?  
Your people have the right to leave the house without being scared that they will be killed. Your children have the right to go to school safely. Your people of color have the right to not fear police turning on them. Your LGBTQ+ people have the right to not be attacked for being themselves. Your women have the right to feel safe and comfortable around large groups of men, without worrying about raped or assaulted. You force us to romanticize death. Or else, how could we handle it? How could we handle being destroyed by decades of you turning your head?  
Land of the free, where your children get slaughtered by their rights. Home of the brave, where your politicians fear the influence queers have on your youth.  
You offer to save everyone. But who will save you?