Like any millennial, I get my news from a wide array of sources. My Twitter is mostly politicians and international news outlets (and Nathan Fillion, I’m not ashamed), CNN and BBC are two of my most visited sites on Google Chrome; my Facebook feed is a constant stream of articles posted by friends from Vice, Jezebel, Buzzfeed, the Globe and Mail, HuffPo, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, and Foreign Policy....

We live in an age where news is unavoidable. It slaps us across the face from video billboards in Yonge and Dundas Square, assaults us on the subway in the form of ad campaigns by International NGOs, yanks our eyes to posters stapled haphazardly to telephone poles and noticeboards advertising protests, demonstrations, petitions or fundraisers as we walk to class. It is scattered amongst the breakups and makeups on Facebook, in between Conan’s Tweets on my phone.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed: Australian PM Tony Abbott and his wife, Margie, place flowers near where the hostages were held.

It seems that these days, wherever I look the world is awash in a sea of senseless violence, the latest of which is the hostage crisis in Australia and the Taliban attack on the Peshawar Army Public School and Degree College. As Canada still mourns the loss of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and Corporal Nathan Cirillo, it breaks my heart that the citizens of Australia and Pakistan have been added to the list of states experiencing national tragedies this year.

The world watched, updates scrolling through by the second, as a lone gunman took 17 people hostage at the Lindt Chocolate Café in New South Wales, Australia. Approximately 16 hours after crisis began, police stormed the café upon hearing gunfire. Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson had been killed, the hostage taker shot by police. The gunman had a history of instability, fascination with extremism, and a violent past; his social media posts place him as having embraced a radical Sunni theology.

And yet, Australia was not the only country left broken hearted by senseless violence this week. Earlier today, militants of the Pakistani Taliban have killed 141 people, 132 of them children at the Peshawar Army Public School and Degree College. A recent offensive by the Pakistani military in North Waziristan and the Khyber area has taken a toll on Taliban forces, and this attack is thought to be in retaliation.

As I sit studying for my final exams, it seems that the world is awash in the blood of innocents. Beyond these isolated events I look to the continued violence of ISIS and the recent instability in the Ukraine, the summer’s violence in Israel and Palestine, and the kidnapping of schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Nigeria. I could list many more, but the picture would be too bleak to handle.

Extremism, it seems, is in fashion this season.

I don’t know what the solution is. Does the developed world step up and send increasing waves of troops into combat? Do we withdraw completely, and leave these torn states to sort the problem for themselves and accept whatever arises so long as it stops the violence?

And yet, amidst the terror, the gunfire, and the fear – the hashtag #IndiaWithPakistan is trending on Twitter. There are so many blood donors at Peshawar hospitals that they are being set up outdoors to donate. An impromptu memorial has been created for Katrina and Tori by the people of Australia as they leave flowers, cards, and heartfelt notes. Condemnations of the attacks are flooding in from around the world, from people of all nationalities and religious affiliations. To the people of Australia, and Pakistan – my heart is with you tonight, as are those of the rest of our nation.

I am an anthropologist. Many times have I asked why humans feel the need to collide with each other with such violence, causing such pain. And yet, for all my study of human behaviour, I can’t for the life of me understand why. We have the ability to reason, to compromise, to think before we speak, and to speak before we act. Are our cultural differences so ingrained that we can’t acknowledge that we’re all members of the same species, equally entitled to the safety and security our world should be able to provide for each person on it?

Put down your weapons. Shelve your anger, your hate. Reach a hand across the divide and forgive your neighbor. Justice should be served by a court and a judge, not the end of a rifle. Stop the violence, or it will be our only legacy.