| Prejudice |
| Prejudice, in its many forms, has been present since humans arrived in the world and began socializing. It's something that will continue to exist until people become truly open minded or, until we all become forced to be uniform the world over. The United States was founded by people escaping religious prejudice resulting in persecution. Oddly enough, the descendents of these same founders ended up discrimating against and persecuting another religious group during the Salem Witch Trials - paganism being the religion I'm speaking of here. Over the years, the people of the United States have forgotten why this country was founded as well as the ethics and morality that went into the creation of our constitution. Slavery was the big issue not long after the constitution went into effect even though Congress had outlawed the practice long before Abraham Lincoln took office. The Constitution does state : "... all men are created equal..." Religious prejudice, racial prejudice, gender prejudice and even prejudice against a person's sexual orientation are all very prevalent in a nation that was once known as "The Melting Pot of the World." Instead of melting together and becoming a stronger nation for it, a nation of harmony and equality, the United States is full of people demanding their right to celebrate their differences - cultural, religious and everything else - with little desire to accept the rest of the nation for their own right to diversity. The big issue facing the United States today is ethnic prejudice. Hispanics are being seen, in a very generalized way, as being a group of illegal immigrants intent on taking jobs away from legal American citizens and draining the welfare system of the nation with their many children so those who really need the help can't get it. Middle Easterners are being seen, in the same generalized way, as all being part of terrorist organizations intent on destroying the United States from within the country's borders. Other ethnic groups view each other, and those mentioned above, with intolerance and prejudice on a lesser but by no means less important level. The United States can't continue in the state of seething inner turmoil, not and be able to continue to be a prosperous and productive nation. We need, all of us here in the United States, to resolve these issues in the most realistic and objective way possible without any group having hidden agendas and the ability to unduly gain from any decisions that are made. This will take all of the ethnic groups of the nation agreeing to leave their seperate ethnic and cultural difference behind them, language included and truly become "American" in the purest form - for starters. Other changes will be slower in coming as the leaders of the different ethnic groups learn to work together for the benefit of everyone. Programs that are beneficial to everyone regardless of race, creed, gender, religion etcetera need to replace the ones currently in place that discriminate based on many of the things listed above. We will always have religious diversity, beliefs of that nature are very personal and must remain outside the scope of the government. This, however, doesn't mean that anyone should use religion to benefit any one group or use it as the basis to discriminate against anyone else. The rest of the prejudices can be overcome in time, with open mindedness and a willing to be tolerant and accepting from everyone. Differences are what make a nation strong and prosperous but only in the spirit of tolerance and acceptance else, the nation is torn down at its very foundation. |
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