I’ve always cared about what is going on in this country, almost impulsively. Yes, it is my home, yes I am an American, but I tend to care about many issues and people that, if I’m honest, don’t directly affect me. I am also a very logical person. I tend to deconstruct things down to their basic substances — which means when it comes to humans I believe everything boils down to biology.
The reason I want to make America “better” is not because I expect or even believe humans are fully capable of caring about people they will never meet. That is naive. I’m sorry. But there is no way you are going to get most people, or even a large portion of people, to actively care about people they don’t know. That is against biology. That is why people who are against socialism and communism are against it — giving other people your resources is not self-preservation. WE ARE ANIMALS. We are supposed to preserve ourselves and our offspring.
Currently humans exist within the context of civilized society. Because of that, caring about other people is self-preservation. The reason I am freaked out that we are creating generations of Pakistani’s who hate us because of our questionable drone program is because they are in uncomfortably close proximity to other people who hate us. The reason I’m uncomfortable that Americans are so desensitized by shootings that we don’t see the patterns of domestic terror is because the last thing we need are threats from outside and inside of our borders. This is why people living on the coasts should not be ambivalent about the politics of the rest (majority) of the country. All of our actions are intertwined. Everyone will be affected when the consequences come around.
Courtney McKinney 
