Racism, sexism, homophobia, gun control, climate change, conversion therapy, sexual harassment scandals; what do all of these issues and many others have in common? The government’s lack of will to change the United States for the better.

Let’s focus on gun control. Just in 2018 there have been 307 shootings. So far in 2019, that number has jumped to 8,655, 51 of which were mass shootings. That number is incredibly high. Just in the 64 days of this year, our country has reached an all-new low – or in this case, an all-new high.

There have been a multitude of recent protests, the most well known being the March For Our Lives, where many celebrities, schools, and even cities participated. March For Our Lives originally started because of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Seventeen people died in the shooting, and to this day, people are still protesting the lack of gun control in certain areas in the United States. The protesting has caused young people to grow more active in their communities and the government.

Despite the involvement of people and the increase of protesting towards gun control, there is lack of change. In fact, President Donald Trump tried to pass a proposal in which teachers would have their own guns in their classrooms, which was met with much backlash.

I do not understand why the government proceeds to change nothing. There have been over 8,000 gun-related incidents in 2019 alone. That number is terrifying and should not be a reality. Despite the mass amount of protests, the substantial number of shootings, and the wide variety of people involved in the March For Our Lives, there has yet to be any change in the government.

Why is that? Because the government is not directly affected by it. There is no negative effect on the politicians in charge of our government. They are not the ones being hurt or killed. They are not the ones losing their minds with fear. They are not the ones whose loved ones who have disappeared from their lives. Yet they are in charge of the world we live in.

And what about an issue that is becoming ever prevalent in the present day but is denied repeatedly despite the wide amount of factual evidence and effects of such that proves otherwise? That’s right, global warming.

Global warming has become a prevalent issue in modern times, and yet there has been little to no change legally. And, for every climate change regulation passed, there are a dozen politicians that do not even admit that global warming exists.

Artificial global warming is caused by humans injecting chemicals into the atmosphere at a faster rate than the Earth can handle. There is a plethora of gases in the atmosphere that trap the Sun’s heat next to the Earth’s surface. This trapping of heat has had a wide variety of effects, from melting the ice caps which in turn makes sea levels rise therefore lessening land mass, to causing the weather patterns to alter in such a fast and chaotic way that no scientist can quite predict what will happen next. This changing weather pattern, otherwise known as climate change, is apparent in the many hurricanes and floods that have destroyed the nation and have hurt many civilians. Global warming also causes certain areas to either get hotter and drier, or colder and wetter. That is why some areas have experienced drought and other areas, like Chicago, are in a deep freeze.

And does our government decide that since there is credible evidence, we should change our habits that have been hurting the world around us? No. The United States has recently become the world’s biggest producer of oil. They have spent time and money in the oil business instead of helping the planet.

This begs the question: why insist on becoming the world’s leading supplier of oil if they know it will hurt the environment? Two simple reasons: money and selfishness. In regards to money, some politicians get paid money from the oil companies to help support them. It would also cost money in order to implement change such as a greener source of energy. The other reason is some politicians might see the issue as beyond their time. Instead of focusing on an issue that does not directly affects them but would affect the live of their children in the near future, they prefer to focus on problems happening now. Whether or not they are more important is irrelevant. Why should a middle aged person worry about a problem that they get paid to deny exists and does not affect them? They will probably be dead before anything substantial happens, after all.

Many citizens, however, are furious at the government for ignoring this issue for so long. There is a group by the name of Our Children’s Trust that is suing the United States government for being aware of climate change for years and doing nothing about it, let alone acknowledging it. They are suing the United States on the grounds that the government’s lack of actions towards climate change “has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.” Many children of many ages from across the nation have gathered together under the leadership of Julie Olson to seek justice for the lack of attention the government is giving them. Each of the members is from an area that has been hurt by global warming. Despite the lack of court date, the group has been becoming a trend on the internet and was even featured on ABC 7’s show “60 minutes.”

I understand that human nature dictates that humans naturally care for themselves and for those closest; however, these people’s jobs are to form rules and goals by which people around them live. Some politicians do act solely in order to help themselves out. Many of them only change things for the better of themselves instead of helping the citizens they should be doing things for. Politicians should be spending their time and money on making the United States a better country for all of its citizens, not just themselves.