I’m writing this as Salisbury High student and as a child of color that lives in Salisbury. I’m writing this cause people need to see and know how a kid feels about this.

It impacts us all in so many different ways — from seeing what’s on the news, from what we see on social media — but we can’t do any thing about it because people feel like kids don’t have a voice that means a lot.

We make up the world. When stuff like this happens, we put fear in the young kids. I’m not just writing this because we don’t get heard enough. With all of this that’s going on, we are just teaching them about war against each other rather than being one. All life matters, not just color, but we get all mad about it because no one listen to us or our side of the story.

So, I’m going to tell you how I feel about this as a teen that lives here and that sees the pain in others eyes and sees how we are scared.

I took this different at first. I didn’t know what was going on, but I felt the pain that others feel; I didn’t know how to talk about it with my family, seeing how we get treated when we all just want peace and happiness. Some nights I couldn’t sleep because all I could think about how this hurts me and the people I know.

Black lives do matter, but also all lives matter. Who wants to live a life of fear like I am now? I’m strong so it does not break me going to the store and having everyone looking at you like an outsider when we are all the same. People in the store are scared to walk past me like I’m going to do something. As a child talking, I don’t want to have the feeling like I have to hide in the house. Just like everyone, I just want to be heard and to let others and little kids know that life and our world will get better.

All we can do is pray and believe and in God and make a change. We all can make our world a better place.

— Faith Jeter

Salisbury