What's Really Wrong With Our Country

Set aside your political stance, your gun policies and your stubborn ability to see the other side and let's figure out what's really wrong with our society.

After a rough week, I had to spend a night in a psychiatric hospital. Without getting into too much detail this night taught me not only a lot about myself but a lot about our country and all the things we are doing so so wrong.

I watched women have hour long conversations with people that weren't sitting next to them, teenagers that fought with their parents and too things way too far, homeless people that seemed like a threat the solution to all of these problems was to put all of these mentally troubled people into a room and treat them like prisoners. Treat them as if they did something wrong. Punish them.

While some of these individuals maybe needed a punishment and didn't make wise decisions in their life, they needed help. As did I. Never once was I asked how I was doing. Never once did someone approach me and ask me if I needed anything. We were stripped of our belongings, privacy and rights and shoved into a room to be watched. Like animals in a zoo.

This experience was horrid, it was traumatizing and it made me realize where the real issues stand in our country.

The real issue is how we treat the people in this country that truly need help. Mental illness is real and its awful and it makes things worse when you have to go at it alone. I have been lucky enough to have constant support from my family, friends and loved ones as I battle through life and figure out how to be a healthy version of Olivia again. Some aren't so lucky.

I witnessed a first hand experience of people with a mental illness being viewed as threats, problematic and prisoners. As if being locked away in their own mental illness wasn't enough, we shove them into a room and expect this to fix the problem. When their observation is done, they go right back on the streets to do whatever it is they did to put them there in the first place. We give them a bottle of prescription drugs, tell them when to take it and send them on their merry way. It is wrong.

Set aside how we treat the mentally ill and the people who need help lets talk about the lengthy process individuals like myself have to go through to get the help that they need.

For example, when I was a sophomore in high school, Karl Pearson woke up on Friday, December 13th, went to Cabela's and bought a shotgun. A quick easy process.

He proceeded to take this shotgun into my high school and ultimately end his life and the life of Claire Davis and leave a school full of individuals with a lifetime of trauma and PTSD.

Do I disagree with owning a gun, NO I DO NOT. This is an American right. Every American citizen has a right to own a weapon and protect themselves. This is not the problem. The real issue stands at how easy this process is. No 18 year old should be able to walk into a store and purchase a weapon in under an hour. A weapon that destroyed way too many lives. On the other hand, I adopted a pup named Harley Jo. Harley has been a crucial step in my healing process. She loves me through my anxiety attacks, kisses me when I'm down and helps keep me out of bed and living my life. She has been a true blessing....

I have been through hell and back to get her approved as an emotional support animal. Appointments, phone calls, meetings you name it, it has been a lonnnnggggg process.

So my question is.....

An 18 year old can walk into Cabelas, purchase a gun and walk out in under an hour.

A mentally ill 20 year old who chooses to advocate for herself purchases a dog for support and has to climb mountains to be able to live with the very thing that brings her constant joy and love.

THIS IS THE ISSUE.

I could care less what your gun preference is. But open your damn eyes. Acknowledge that the process and stipulations needed for gun ownership is far too easy. Individuals like me are trying to advocate for themselves, become healthy again and fix the problem and it has been a nightmare. If owning a gun can be done in 20 minutes, so should having a dog as an emotional support animal. This is one example of many.

The issue in this country isn't guns. So stop with the Facebook debates, the tweets the conversations over dinner. The issues is how we treat people who's solution is as simple as some love and compassion. We waste our time arguing and needing to be right when the solution is as easy as swallowing your hurtful words, opening your ears and spreading a little compassion.

Spread love. Please. That's all we need to do.