In the face of the seemingly constant violence reported on the news recently around the country, many people are asking themselves what the reason is for these acts of violence. Why now? And why here?

The past few years have held a bold theme for the U.S. Not only is our president bold with his ideas, opinions and his statements, but because of that, so is everyone else. People feed off each other, and when one person pushes their opinion, another person pushes back. Time and time again, events have proven that when bold ideas are presented, radicals always show up, some for and some against the ideas presented.

This may be part of the problem in the cases of the recent shootings. As nerves are high, people are expressing their views and opinions more and more boldly. This can be a good thing if done in the right way, through a civil method. But not everyone is civil. The criminals who victimize innocent people, like in the recent shootings, are expressing their radical views and opinions through the worst, most shocking and least ethical way they can: by injuring and murdering other human beings who have views opposed to them. This is evident in the Pittsburgh shooting that occured Saturday, as the shooter, Robert Bowers, continued to shout, “I want to kill all the Jews.” even as he was rushed to the emergency room after the incident, according to The Washington Post. It was even reported by several news outlets that the first three people who took care of Bowers were Jewish. Anyone with a heart can agree that a hate crime of this magnitude is a terrible, radical and corrupt way to express a prejudice opinion. Another mass shooting and hate crime that occured within the past few years is the 2016 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. No matter what a person’s opinion is about people of other beliefs and opinions, this type of behavior is no way to express those opinions.

How do we as students get involved in the fight against violence that results from radical opinions against other people? We cannot allow ourselves to become trapped in the escalation of radical statements pitted against individuals we don’t agree with to make a point. We must instead fight this violence by finding the underlying issues and using our civil voices and votes to make a stand in our country.

The Pittsburgh shooting occurred close to our university in Waynesburg. Hate crimes could potentially occur against any of us individually, and hate crimes against other people in our country is a hate crime against all of us. We would all like to live in a country that does not include such radical, unscrupulous expression of opinions, and certainly not opinions that hold such prejudice against our neighbors, and even as students, we can make a difference.