I am a true believer of having every single person live in peace on this earth without being discriminated against or prosecuted due to their race, religion, political view, or even those who are trying to fight for their rights.

I cannot say that I know what the black community goes through or how they feel, as i have never been discriminated against. However, I do have an idea of what it feels like to be persecuted for your religion or where you’re born.

I am a Chaldean Iraqi-American citizen that was born in Iraq and immigrated to the U.S. 15 years ago. We have not only suffered the Christian persecution at the hands of extremists, Iraqis have also suffered at the hands of the government and many have died during this 18 year-long civil war.

All the Iraqi officials have been taken out and replaced with Iranian officials to run the country. The latest incident in 2019 was when the Iraqi citizens have had enough of unemployment and poverty, and started peacefully protesting to gain their freedom back and be able to work. They were faced with Iranian snipers, riot control agents and the military.

The peaceful protestors were shot at with live ammunition, expired tear gas canisters were purposely thrown directly at them and they also used Sarin gas. Thousands of them have died at the hands of the government for simply asking to go to work. The government also shut down the internet to hide what was happening and arrested many reporters that tried to cover these incidents. The protests are still going on until day today, and no resolution was offered to them.

I am not writing this to take away from what happened here in the US, I am writing this because humanity has suffered enough. We have lost many innocent lives at the hands of hate. These people could have done something great, they had their whole life ahead of them and goals to achieve. However, I believe even though we did lose these beautiful souls, their death will not be in vain. They have brought awareness to many. They have changed the world.