How many people know what that word even means?
More importantly, how many care?
Turning on the news, reading up on history, or even just drawing back from my own past, in my parent's home [I grew up in a highly religiously intolerant household] - the world is filled with intolerance, prejudice and hatred, and for the life of me, I will never be able to understand it. It's a mentality as old as humanity itself - point the fingers at the ones who are different than we are.
Not only does it boggle my mind that racism, sexism, ageism, etc. still go on in this day and age, but that it is still rampant in a country that is supposed to live up to its ideals of "liberty, equality and justice for all".
There is a saying credited to George Santayana that I believe is famous: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
• Native Americans are slaughtered and forced to abandon their lands; when European settlers establish the country, only white male land-owners have the right to vote.
• According to the McGraw-Hill School Group, "For much of American history, women were not considered equal to men and were denied equality in many areas of life. Most women had no legal identity apart from their husbands. Married women could not hold property in their own names, sue or be sued, make contracts, sit on a jury, write a will, or vote. Nor did women have the same opportunities for education and careers that men did." Only in 1920 were women even allowed the right to vote.
• "He didn't look like one of us..." To many residents of Atlanta, Georgia in 1913, this was reason enough to suspect Leo Frank of murder, according to the book, The Shadow of Hate - for some, it was reason enough to hang him. Not until The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did African-Americans have rights in this country.
• On August 1, 2007, Robert Maltby and Sophie Lancaster were attacked by a number of males in their late teens while walking through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Rossendale in Lancashire, England. As a result of her severe head injuries, she went into a coma, never regained consciousness, and later died. Her fiance, Robert Maltby, barely survived. The reason that they were attacked? The couple's wearing gothic fashion and being members of the goth subculture.
• Throughout history, homosexuals have had to go into hiding to avoid persecution and discrimination. Sexual acts between persons of the same sex have only been legal nationwide in the US since 2003, and only five states and one district currently offer marriage to same-sex couples.
How is any of this relevant today?
We live in a world with very different people, with very different opinions, from very different cultures, with very different beliefs, and with very different backgrounds. How long do we have to see history repeat itself -- genocide after vicious genocide; wave after wave of bitter persecution; evacuation after heartbreaking evacuation; massacre after bloody massacre; attack after violent attack; prejudiced viewpoint after prejudiced viewpoint -- when does it end? I don't know about a lot of other people out there, but personally, I'm really sick of all of the hatred, gangs and violence. I want to believe that, as time goes by, the human race can better itself -- strive to become better assets to society, while not having to sacrifice everything about who they are, and without persecuting others for who they are. With so many different kinds of people, kindness, respect, sympathy, and courage are essential to life. I especially think this for America, which is not only a "salad" of races, religions, cultures and backgrounds -- but also a country that was 'supposedly' founded on the freedom of all men. How do we give freedom? -- definitely, not through prejudice and blind hatred.
Everyone has their own belief; ethnicity; tradition; race; heritage; culture -- who wants to be forced to change their own? Who has that right to do that to anyone else?
I want my children to be able to safely grow up in a world where they are free to express their individuality.
But it starts with us, right now.
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Credits - [I'll properly source this later]:
http://blog.glencoe.com/blog/2010/04/01/history-of-women%E2%80%99s-rights-in-america/
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