Dear America,

Growing up I was taught that the United States was the best country in the world. That by living here, we were blessed with “liberty and justice for all”. I have always been grateful for our democracy, for the fact that I lived in a country where everyone could be treated equally, where “anyone could do anything”. Recently, I have been awakened from that dream. America is not perfect, it is not the best. It is far from it. And yesterday was only another example of just that. A group of domestic terrorists stormed our capital, and they were met with minimal opposition. How is it that when people of color were peacefully protesting for their rights in the streets, they were met with more opposition than this group storming our capitol building, which is supposed to be one of the safest buildings in our country. How was this allowed to happen? These people were storming our capitol building during the electoral college vote because they were convinced, by the words of our own president, whose job is to protect and serve the American people, that the election had been false. That it had been stolen. Despite the numerous evidence against this, court cases and recounts and words from our president’s appointed judges, they refused to accept it. And no one knew it was happening. Or if they did, they did almost nothing to stop it. Our own president then refused to call the national guard, and it has been shown that his speech from that very morning, as well as many prior to this, had been an encouragement to these domestic terrorists. We cannot forget this, and there must be consequences for the actions of these people. The “president” no longer deserves his title, and those who stormed the capital should be arrested and held responsible. Yes, they have the right to a peaceful protest, but this was no peaceful protest, it was an act of domestic terrism that darkened the United States. Moving forward we have to keep this day in mind. Our democracy was threatened by the actions of these people, and we cannot allow it to happen again. We have to stop the systemic racism and the mentality of these people that allowed them to do this. We have to take a look at our country and really see what is wrong. We have to take steps to ensure that people are truly receiving equal rights, we can’t just overlook it. For it is these divisions that played a large part in the horrors of yesterday. America, you are not the greatest country in the world, but if you would take a moment to reflect and rebuild, you could be.

Sincerely,

Quinn Suomala