Can't We Just Get Along

Classifying people by race, color, ethnicity or national origin does not benefit anyone.  It promotes bigotry and racism.  Looking back through history, the monstrous people who have sought to create a master race have caused such tragedy.  Hitler, who was a short, little man, sought to exterminate the Jews and create a master race of tall, blond people.  His stature did not meet his own requirements.  More recently, warring factions in such places as Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Iraq, have attempted to exterminate people of different tribes and religions. 

            If the human race is to ever overcome the bonds of hate, the policies that cause the sorting of people should never exist.  Everyone should just get over it but that is much too easy to say.  After centuries of class distinctions, religious differences and pernicious racism, changing the way people think will not happen overnight.  The government should stop asking the questions that pigeonhole people and that will be a step in getting peoples of all races, religions, colors, ethnicities and national origins to look at each other differently.  Actually, to look at each as the same instead of differently is the ultimate goal.  Our future depends on it.

--by Jane Adamson-Merrill


Celebrating Our Differences

     It would be lovely to live in an utopian society where everyone was created equal. However, we do not. In every part of the world people are being classified by race, color, ethnicity, and national origin. To be totally honest, I do not see the problem with this.
     First of all, while it is true that we are all human, we are very different. We should not be all clumped together in one category. The classifying of people is not wrong. Pretending that we are all the same is wrong. By pretending that everyone is the same, you are essentially ignoring the histories as well as the struggles and accomplishments of different groups of people. It is my belief that all people regardless of race, color, ethnicity, or national origin have contributed to society.
     Secondly, whether we use government policies to classify people or not, classification starts in the mind. We as humans tend to look for things that make us uniquely different. It is my belief that if we were all the same, we would find senseless, idiotic, trivial traits to seperate ourselves. That's who we are as a people.
     I'm not sure that I would be happy in a world where everyone was the same. I prefer to live in a society where the goverment recognizes all classes of people and chooses to celebrate our differences. I feel that this is how we will grow as a nation.
By: Tamika R. Huff