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Just had a long conversation with a friend that helped me open my eyes up to my own flaws and the flaws of all of us as a community. One thing I notice over and over is that we tend to gravitate towards and stay inside our comfort zones. Especially when it comes to choosing friends. There are way too many people who would rather stay with the friends they've been close to their whole lives than talk to someone new who might have new and different perspectives. It's great to have lifelong friendships. But it's dangerous when you are friends with the same group of people who look and act exactly the same as you. It prevents you from having real conversations and facing facts that are necessary and crucial to your growth and being open minded. I'm guilty of this myself. I tend to stay with the same friends that I've had for a while, but this year has taught me a lot. This year I have strayed completely out of my comfort zone and made friends with people who I nev...

If you call yourself an activist or say you have progressive values or call yourself a feminist and you are not standing up for or speaking up for Palestine, then your activism or feminism needs to go. I see way too many people who are activists and who support Black Lives Matter and immigration rights and the dismantelment of systems of white supremacy in the United States but who don't give the same attention or activism to Palestine. Remember what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." So, I will be out here speaking up for the innocent Palestinian protesters who tried to exercise their right to protest peacefully. We take that right for granted here in America, but they were met with bullets and tear gas (even though I know what tear gas looks like and it doesn't give people convulsions like that). If we fight for our rights to protest peacefully here in America we should also be speaking out for the rights of th...