Molen 1 Jennifer Molen 7 Miss Connie Douglas ba “oe a se UWRIT 1101 “4 fea o es 2 September 2014 stot All Men are Created Equal Growing up my parents did a prety good job sheltering me fom the harsh reality ofthe 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 I 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, We Wee all made in the perfect image of God and He did not intend for humans to use race as a divider. 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 hard for me to turn on the television or a radio station and not here about 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 towers 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 either 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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 friends, that was a water gun, etc. Nothing was real to me and when I finally became aware of the real life I was shocked. The meaning of equality became stad Cnprebsd | Asa child it was much easier to see that everyone was equal. Getting older and becoming more a lot more difficult for me to aware of the violence and war that was always there became more clear to me. In kindergarten no teacher is going to stand in front of a group of 5 and 6 year olds and tell them that African Americans used to be slaves and were usually tortured, or that Hitler killed off Jews, disabled persons, Aftican bbe Clalmeh to hn Americans, and more during the Holocaust becausé being Jewish was not the right religior!' The discrimination in this world used to be horrible and although we as a nation have made some progress, the discrimination and inequality is tl very preset. Learning about our violent history and present in school made it harder for me to accept that someone like Saddam Hussein had equal rights as someone like Ghandi. Watching TV and 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 family. Now say this guy was caught and arrested. Should he serve time for the rest of his life or get put to death? This was 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 superiority over anyone we do not get to decide whether they get to live 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 go but if she left she would have gotten in trouble or hurt. They did not have a voice in anything and were to be housewives and 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. Before the 1920s, women did not have much rights. They could not work, they had to be housewives 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 dignity there are still people who do not treat women the same as men. ‘The passage Sponsors of Literacy by Deborah Brandt was about who a 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 awn peweh Tess Brtnnale aH FSP 6 story abouf‘Dora Lopez. Dora came from a poerer family and her parents did not have thet geod of literacy skills. As a litle girl Dora would buy books from her mothers store and read them, Dora's literacy stil became very strong in both English and Spanish. This passage teaches that even though someone comes from a pooret or richer ores rem that 0 superior tothe other. big problem in the world is thatthe poor andthe rich are treated so aire Just because someone elie Eran has more or less money than someoné does not mean that they do not-keve the same rights. “When we're connected to others, we become better people” (Pausch.) In The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch he quotes that when we are connected to other people whether they be Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, or Chinese we become better people. This plays into equality. If we can get past the fact that someone is a different race or social standing than we are then we can focus on ‘more important things like their culture or personality. By putting their race behind us, people can learnMolen 4 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. 1 think with the mentality that everyone is equal there would be a litte less discrimination and violence in the world, Itis 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 someone else. They may be in charge of something but that does not mean people can abuse their power. Everyone is equal. This I believe.