As an elementary school student, I frequently sat at the kitchen table and glared at my homework. For hours, I would look at it, hoping it would complete itself. As the afternoon turned into evening, and evening turned into bedtime, my homework would still reflect back at me, uncompleted. I would whine and complain, begging my mother to let me go and play videogames, but her answer was always the same: “you have made your bed, and now you have to lie in it.”

I feel safe walking around my own neighborhood late at night. I have never been followed around a clothing store by a security guard. I have never witnessed someone of my own race victimized on video. My family has never been targeted by the police for crimes we did not commit.

I’ve always been aware that I have privilege as a white woman in America, but looking into the eyes of people I deeply care about and hearing their cries as they speak to their experiences of what I listed above -- I wasn’t just aware of my privilege. I felt my privilege crawling along my every limb.

I cannot remember the last time I struggled so deeply to push a button. I cannot remember the last time a green icon instigated such intense feelings of guilt and indecision.

We are currently living in a world under siege. We have been thrust into a war against an enemy that hides in plain sight.

March marks the United State’s 33rd Annual Women’s History Month. This past Sunday was International Women’s Day (IWD), and people all across the globe used the day to publicly declare their advocacy and dedication to the advancement of women’s rights.

In Mexico, protestors marched against elevating rates of femicide, while Islamic women in Pakistan chanted “my body, my choice” through the streets. The Philippines, Turkey, Mexico, the United States, and many other countries showed public consideration for the day.

SMC Professor David Burak contributes to the Corsair with this piece focused on the issue of gun violence in schools across the U.S.