This past Friday, Nov. 12, everyone at EMU received a safety alert from the Campus Safety Coordinator, Wayne Martin, regarding a community safety issue. The issue described in the email was, “potentially aggressive actions toward our LGBTQ+ members.”

This came as a huge surprise to me because it happened in our community, and my first reaction was disbelief and shock. When I am at EMU I usually have a sense of safety because it is a small community where we respect each other, and I believe everyone to be open-minded to some extent, or at the very least respectful or willing to share the same space with people with different beliefs, backgrounds, and preferences. 

However, as I was processing the situation, I realized that it was not impossible for something like this to happen here at EMU or anywhere. I think that my perspective of seeing the best in people sometimes makes me forget about the reality that some people don’t have the best in them. 

This awful incident made me check myself and realize that there is still so much progress around the world and even in our community. Hate is still here and people are unable to be educated and understand that every human being is equal and must be respected. 

We all need to understand that every person deserves love, compassion, respect, and equality no matter who they are. No one should be in a position where they get to judge a person because of their sexual preferences, skin color, or beliefs. A person should not be afraid about going out into the world and think that they will be harmed or discriminated against because of who they love. Love is love! Love is one of the most complex and pure feelings that everyone is able to feel. To think that people get attacked by who they get to love is sad. 

These types of events come to show that we must work harder to achieve at least some sense of equality and harmony in our society. We all as individuals go through difficult journeys in order to figure out who we are. There are people who are fortunate enough to come out and be accepted, there are some who only come out to some people, and then there are those who are unable to come out due to fear and many other feelings that are impossible to comprehend. No one should be scared about feeling love for someone. No one should feel entitled to attack someone just because they are perceived as “different.”