Conflict between the United States and North Korea has been an ongoing issue since the mid 1900’s. Even after wars and treaties, there is still tension between the two. But regardless of the history and events prior to our generation, are we, the United States, doing too much to increase the tension between the two?

I’ve seen countless commercials and comedy skits mocking North Korea and the relationship we have with them. I’ve read hashtag after hashtag humiliating people that breathe the same air we breathe. Joke after joke, insult after insult. Are we, as a new generation capable of doing everything necessary to have and maintain world peace, doing too much?

Think of it this way. We don’t condone bullying. Bullying in the United States is looked at as a disgrace. I even saw my favorite basketball player on TV talking about bullying. But once it reaches outside the walls of this country, it’s strangely looked at as comedy. We bully these people. We look at these people as if we are better than them. History or no history,  no one deserves being treated the way we treat them.

I know that there’s a lot more to resolving a conflict with the magnitude as big as the one between the two countries, than being nice. I know smiling won’t do the trick. But it won’t hurt. If we can do a good job on focusing on the way we treat people in our country, why not spread it around the world? Why not hope for a difference, why not be that difference? Maybe then, in return, we won’t have our lives threatened by a country that takes offense to one of our “jokes.”