i Molen 1 Jennifer Molen ee Miss Connie Douglas Wa UWRIT 1101 J: 2 September 2014 Ay All Men are Created Equal Growing up my parents did a pretty good job of sheltering me from the harsh reality of the world around me. I was always told to not talk to strangers, to only trust those I knew, and to respect those who were older than I was. Looking back I cannot think of a time when I looked at someone who ‘was a different color than I was and thought that I was better than them, As a child knew that everyone was equal and the golden rule that my family members and teachers taught me was to treat everyone as I want to be treated. I believe that everyone is equal no matter what. Weare all made in the perfect image of God and He did not intend for humans to use race as a divider. bood 45 Flipping on the television nowadays people are able watch a wide range of disturbing news ‘anywhere from what is happening in Isis to an everyday gang shooting or robbery or watch violent action packed movies like 300 or Rambo that are playing on three different channels at a time. It is iB aa for me to tum on the television or a radio station and not ou something violent or tragic that is happening in the world but for some reason growing up I never heard any of these violent crimes. The only instant of a violent attack that was happening in the world was the terrorist attacks on the twin ywers and that was because we always talked about it in school. My parents were very aware of all the violence, discrimination and inequality that was right outside our front steps and yet, I was completely unaware. When I was little and I flipped on the television it was cither Nickelodeon or Disney Channel. I was never allowed to watch the news or listen to talk radio and as I child I never questioned that because to a child those things are boring. If I ever did catch wind of violence orm4 12 Molen 2 discrimination my parents would come up with a false story about what was really happening. The man was fixing the ladies purse, those two guys are just fiends, that was a water euf(ete Nothing was real ‘ome and when [finally became aware ofthe real life was shocked, The meaning of equality became a lot more difficult for me to understand. Be ye lt, As a child it was much easier to see that everyone was equal. Getting older 2 aware ofthe violence and war that was aways Bee ‘became more clear to me. In kindergarten no Tocher going w sod in ar ota group of eas € pei les ana tel em Wat Annee ee used to be slaves and were usually tortured, or that Hitler killed off Jews, disabled persons, A\rican Americans, and more during the Holocaust because he claimed being Jewish was not the right religion tohid The disriminaion in this word used to be honbe and although weg anationhave made some progress, the discrimination and inequality is still very present. a Oat earings ox ile intr et ag vet mae be re to aoe that someone like Saddam Hussef had equal rights soon Tike Ghandi. Wang Vp seeing ‘what happened in Sandy Hook especially made it difficult to accept that the shooter was equal to me. No matter how hard it is to accept that everyone is equal with all the violence in this world may not be easy for most people; it is not easy for me. A rhetorical task that my religion teacher made my class think about was if someone broke into our houses at night and killed our entire a. say a guy was caught and arrested. Should he serve time forthe rest of his life or get put to death? This aa very hard for me to decide because this guy would have taken everything away from me, My religion teacher taught us that no matter what sin someone has committed they are still equal to us. We do not have superoiy over anyones donot gto decide whee they get oie or die In the movie The Book of Eli, women were treated as sex objects. There was a scene where a girl, Solara, was forced to sleep with Eli. The women were kind of treated like prostitutes because one of the first things Solara said to Eli was that it was on the house. Eli was disturbed by this act and toldMolen 3. Solara that she needed to ga,putif she left she would have gotten in trouble or hurt. They did not have a voice in anything and were to be houtewives ang were only good for cleaning, cooking, and sex. Even though The Book of Eli is a movie, women used to not have as much respect and rights as they do now. LA Before the 1920s, women did not have Bauch rights. Ee could not work, they had to be housewives ~eila\io and they did not have the right to vote (Women's,) Back then, men believed that they were superior to women. After the Women's Rights Movement women had more rights and now women and men are supposed to have equal rights. While most people treat women the same with respect and Sisitytiere Seoee are still people who do not treat women the same as men. The poe of Literacy by Deborah Brandt was Pe. ‘ho d sponsor of literacy was and what they did. A sponsor can be a parent, family member, teacher, or even friends who have better literacy skills or more experience with literacy. This sponsor teaches you what they know about literacy and coaches you on improving your literacy skills. A powerful story that was told in this passage was a story about a woman named Dora Lopez. Dora came from a weaker socioeconomic status less fortunate \ family and her parents did not have a great grasp on literacy skills. As a litle girl Dora would buy books from her mothers store and read them. Dora's literacy skills thus became very strong in both, lish and Spanish. This passage teaches that even though someone comes from a poor or rich .ckground that does not mean that either is superior to the other. A big problem in the world is that the poor and the rich are treated so differently. Just because someone else has more or less money than \ Penne does not mean that they do not share the same rights. “When we're connec 34 gotten ‘we become better people” (Pausch.) In The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch fe good that when we are connected to other people whether they be Caucasian ACTA, Dean ‘African American, Hispanic, or Chineseywe become better people, his)plays into equatity. If we can get past the fact that someone is a different race or social standing than we are then we can focus on Oe = eo Ans {Tnat [anese waaMolen 4 ‘more important things like their culture or personality. By putting their race behind us, people can learn things that they did not know before and because of this, we become better people because we understand a little bit more of someone than we did not know prior to getting connected to someone. dE "think with che mentality thet everyone is equal there would be a ite lessdiserimination and _ [> violence in the world. It is stated in the Constitution that all men are created equal and I believe that ‘many people take this for granted. Society has a lot to do with inequality and persuading someone to think that what they say or do is true. If someone important says or does something than people might follow in their footsteps. People in power need to keep in mind that you are not superior over someon else. They may be in charge of something but that does not mean people can abuse their power. , Everyone is equal. This I oe Dee EMolen 5 Works Cited Imbornori, Ann-Marie. "Women's Rights Movement in the U.S.." Infoplease. Infoplease, nd. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. "Randy Pausch Quotes.” Randy Pausch Quotes (Author of The Last Lecture). N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Sept. 2014, The Book of Eli. Dir. Albert Hughes. Perf. Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson. Blitz Film & Video Distribution, 2010. DVD.