Download No one is born hating another person because of the color of his

If the point of school was to surround you with people, ideas and attitudes exactly like your
own, you wouldn’t need teachers or books or computers, you could just sit in a box for 7 hours, or in
front of a mirror. I don’t know which worries me more, the idea that some of this close-mindedness is
because you think that you already have all the skills, knowledge and attitude you’ll ever need for your
future, or the idea it’s because you’ve already given up on having a future. Part of the mission statement
of this school is to make you” world citizens”, able to function and excel in the world…and with
technology and ways to travel, you have access to the world like never before. There are opportunities
out there, but not if you sabotage yourself with a prejudiced attitude and way of dealing with people.
There is information, ideas, connections going all around the globe, and you’re lucky enough to be born
in a country where you’re being educated, where you’re allowed to learn about the world, and human
history. You’re not somewhere in North Korean being told what to think, given propaganda instead of
true information, not being allowed to make your own mind up, just being taught to hate everyone who
isn’t you. This is why you study literature, and history, and math, and science, so you can learn to think,
to learn how vast the human experience is and how you fit into it, how we got here. To be a human
being you need think things through without bias, based on real facts, not just what someone told you
and some stereotyped image in your head, and decide a value system for yourself. The fact we can think
abstract thoughts is what separates us from animals, it’s why human beings are called Homo sapiens, or
“thinking man. ”
Bigotry and hate is ugly and wrong, and I don’t care who it’s coming from, whether you’re
wearing gang colors and tattoos, a white hood, a swastika, a turban, a foreign uniform, or jeans and a
tee shirt. Hatred is the same no matter who your target is. It lets people do terrible things to each other,
and it always starts small, with attitudes, with the idea that some group of people aren’t really people
and you don’t have to consider them as individuals. You can’t walk up to most people and say, “Hey,
would you please put a person in an oven, or fly a plane into a building, and please make sure you
destroy a lot of human lives and cause massive pain” and have them agree. You can’t walk up to a good
person, torture someone in front of them and have them turn away and say “Not my business, doesn’t
matter,” but that’s what happens during a genocide. It starts with hinting that other people aren’t as
human or important as you are. You can think ugly thoughts about a stereotyped group of “them”
easier than you can about an actual person that you know. That’s why in war countries put out negative
propaganda about the enemy, a stereotypical image of them, it makes them easier to hate and kill.
That’s what lets people blow themselves up on a plane.
This is why it matters when inhuman things are being done to a group of people, even if it’s not
you, because it sets a dangerous precedent, if it’s ok for someone to take away one group’s rights today,
then it’s also okay for someone else to take away our rights tomorrow. Either we’re all human beings, or
none of us are. When we can’t treat other good people with respect because our minds are clouded, it
demeans us. And guess what, the groups being discriminated against do keep changing. In the over 200
years since the US was formed, at various times Irish, Italians, Russians, Germans, Poles, Jews, AfricanAmericans, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Catholics, Mormons, women, the mentally ill, disabled people,
and poor people were discriminated against, or considered a blight on the country. Think about which
of those groups you could fit into, I’m betting at least one.
This is the world, and it’s a very big place. That little dot is still over a 100 times bigger than Houtzdale,
PA.
If you’re closing your mind to everything outside that little dot on the map, there’s a lot you
could miss out on. It’s good to know where you come from, to have roots, to have attitudes and values
based on how you were raised. But, if you are unwilling to consider that others might have some
connection to you as a human being, some lesson you can learn, if only the people exactly like you have
value, then you are making your life so much smaller. You will be shutting out opportunities, ideas, and
people, for you, for kids you’ll have. If you’re going to be close-minded, ignorant, intolerant and proud
of it, how are you better or different from the people who hate you or look down on you? In the
Declaration of Independence, Jefferson says that we have inalienable rights as human beings, to “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” not to trample other’s rights or to hatred.
Recently, a man named Nelson Mandela died, and leaders from all over the world gathered to
honor him. He was president of South Africa, but before that he spent almost 30 years in prison for
working against apartheid, which was discrimination, separation and unequal treatment of blacks and
whites in South Africa. He was considered an inspiration to many people of different ages, races,
nationalities and situations worldwide because he spoke and worked for human rights. According to him
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his
background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to
hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human
heart than its opposite,” and “To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”