Mind Your Own Beeswax

I noticed that you stopped sitting with us at lunch. I turned around to see a former friend,
Jack, at the table next to me. I stopped sitting with Jack and his other friends because I was offended
by some of the things that they said and did. I didnt say a word, just decided to sit at another table
one day. We thought you were avoiding us because some of us are gay. Glad to see that is not the
case. But it was the case; it was exactly what caused me to decide to leave. I dont understand why
people cant accept what other people decide is best for them. What I do does not affect anyone else.
My choices are mine alone, so why do people care if I am a gay? Why cant people mind their own
business and just tolerate what other people do? Its not like I am saying that theyre evil because of
their choices. I wanted to say no. I know what will happen when I told him the truth, but there just
no escaping the argument coming.
I always believed that there are consequences for every action, some affect yourself and some
affect those around you. I have met other people like Jack, who think that people should tolerate
everything, only seeing the consequences that affect themselves. When I realized that last year, I left
before Jack and his friends could make a stupid decision and get me dragged into it.
The other reason I left is, for some strange reason, these tolerant people can be very
intolerant of people who insist on not agreeing with them. I know that if I say why I left to Jack, he
would instantly start to try to make me agree with him. He will try to twist my religion to show,
falsely, the errors of my ways. Or he will go on a giant rant on why I am not civilized according to
some notion. And, for some reason, he would act like I should still be his friend after he attacks me
for what I believe. Everything dear to me will be verbally threatened by a boy I once called a friend
if I tell him that I think he is wrong. But it would be just as bad if I stay quiet.
Jack, I dont sit with you anymore because I am not like you. I dont think it is right for a guy
to marry a guy. I hold up a finger, I am not finished. I dont sit with you because I believe that things

I do can affect the people around me. I left the group because I dont agree with what you guys were
saying. In fact, I hated what you were saying. Immediately I could see in Jacks eyes that he was doing
what I thought he would.
Youre just like everyone else. The Bible does not say anything about being gay. And your
Jesus says that you should love everybody and not judge people.
I was disgusted. I know that the Bible forbids homosexuality, and he is twisting Jesus words.
We should not condemn people but show them their errors only after we fix our own, which is what
his twisted quote really means. Every quote used against Christians is taken out of context.
It is because people take things out of context and take things to the extremes that there are
these tolerant people. I would be happy if everyone were the same or just had every action
compatible with every belief but humans are so corrupt that they think that they can force another to
accept their ways by saying their basic beliefs allow it. And then when you provide counter
arguments, they act like you tried to stab them with a knife.
The veins in Jacks neck were bulging and his face was scarlet. He finally shouted, Fine! I
never thought you would be one of
them
! He banged his fist on a tray so hard it broke in two. I
dont want to see your hypocritical face again! I turned around with a smirk, seeing who the real
hypocrite is. The words of my Sunday school teacher flash in my head.
Push hard enough and a
persons true self will rise to the surface to be viewed by all.

Equal?
Browsing through scholarships, I notice that I could apply for most of the scholarships if I was
black, Asian, African descent, Native American, international, or female. Basically, if Im not an
average white male. What happened to people saying that everyone should be equal? Why is it that

some of my friends get a full ride scholarship because he is the son of a Mexican descent migrant
worker? Why do forms always have the question What race are you? While the forms say that your
answer does not matterexcept for colleges, of course.
Humans lack the ability to see data and know completely that it is not going to influence their
choice. That is one of the ways we have learned to take tests and study. We will look at the question,
work it out first, then look at the answer to see if we were right. In doing so we memorize the answer
by repeatedly looking at it; after several years of doing this, we can memorize the answer on the first
time. The same goes for these forms and statistics that we hear about. We subconsciously know
that this race does better than that race so we will judge them higher. Or we will choose to work with
a person of that race because of the stereotypes.
I have heard my mentors from robotics complain about how they have to have this
percentage of women in their engineering workforce, but what happens if they are under this quota?
Even if the women are less skilled than the standard, they have to hire those women. This only lowers
the quality of the workforce.
This requirement comes more as proof of nondiscrimination. If a watchdog group sees that a
company is all male and is not changing, or if someone wrongfullyor rightfullycomplains about
not being hired because of gender, the company cannot disprove the accusations of discrimination.
But even with the laws about discrimination, Equal Pay is another one of the times were equal does
not mean equal. Men make twenty percent more than women. Even after the Equal Pay laws.
There is even a genre that often includes societies that use this false equality. Its call
dystopian. These societies, the societies that are supposedly equal not dystopians in general which
are failed utopians, are told that they are no better than everyone else because they are equal. But
the protagonist always discovers that this equality does not exista lot like how society is now. For
example, in
Anthem
the main character was raised so that he would never consider himself above or

below anyone (in a sense, equal) but he is still human. He has that natural, almost genetic, desire to
favor one thing above another. He even finds that he is not the only one with these tendencies. And
decided that he wants his children to be told that they are special, for them to find what they love to
do and be the best that they can at it.
How can we separate ourselves if we are not good at what is used as a standard. In
Elementary school, parents would receive test scores. These test scores are on an x-y graph, and just
about every one agree that test scores are not a good judge for skillmaybe what area that skill is in,
but not the individual skill. The first time that you are shown where your skill is, is at the end of
Middle school, where they actually dont show your score on an x-y graph, but on a circle. They
segmented the circle into four parts Reading, Writing, Math, Scienceand make a smaller circle to
show where your max score would be if you completely fail at all the other skills.
If you think about skills as a circle that represents the skill level of a peer group, the center is
where everybody starts. Then dots appear as that peer group gets older, but not all the dots appear
on the same side of the circle. Saying that everyone is equal would be comparing it to an average,
which no one is. And because no one is the average, no one is equal, which just turns back on it to
prove the statement inaccurate. The skill level cannot be looked at on an x-y graph because then x
would be the time, but what would be the y?
So why are we raised to one thing and educated to another, every person is happier when
they are better at something than the next person. So people should stop saying that we are equal,
we never have been equal, and never will be equal.

Works Cited
Vagianos, Alanna. "The Gender Pay Gap Is Alive And Well In All 50 States, Shows Study."
The
Huffington Post
. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

<
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/gender-wage-gap-study-aauw_n_4950430.html
>.

Wild
Somepeoplearejustoutofcontrol.Theyacttoadegreeofmaturitythatwouldmake
atoddlerfeelelderly.Butthelargestproblemwiththesepeopleisthatsincetheyhaveno
selfcontrol,theycantbedirectedintothecorrectactionbyothers.Andthesaddestpart
aboutthatisthattheyarethrownaroundbytheirprimordialnotionsuntiltheyhitrockbottom,
oftensomethingthatwillruinorendtheirlife.Manytimesthesepeoplewillprovedisastrous
formanyotherpeople,likeadrunkdriverrunningoversomeone.Ifeellikepeoplebecome
thiswaybecauseofmanyfactors:Toomuchfreedom,example,andtheirhomeenvironment.
Becauseitisnearimpossibletocausewildpeopletorealizetheconsequencesoftheir
actionsaftertheybecomewild,tosolvethisepidemic,thetreatmentistobeappliedatthe
source:howthepersongrewup.Eventhentheyarestillcomparabletobacteriaandviruses.
Therewillalwaysbeafewthatareimmunetothetreatment,andalwaysawayforthemto
findanewhostandspread.

Parents
Somepeopleshouldnotbeallowedtoreproduce.Buttheonlywaytoconvincethose
peopleisbylettingthemtryandfailontheirown.Theparentshouldhavefullresponsibility,
whethertheywerereadyornot,fortheirchildrenandhavetofacethefullcostofmistakes.

Onethingthatdiscouragesthisistheideaofwelfareandothergovernmentsafetynet
policies.Thosepoliciesdoonlytwothingsninetypercentofthetime,costmoneyandreward
errors.In2014,thegovernmentspentabout500billiondollarsinwelfarealone.Theoriginal
structureoffamilieswascreatedandmodifieduntilitworkedwithoutgovernmentalhelp,then
thepoliticianswantedmorepower.Leadingtothegeneralpublicsdistrustforourelected
officialsandthecreationofthejoke,Howdoyouknowapoliticianislying,hismouthis
open.Havingamoreobjectivebasedprogramwouldcostlessandhurtpeoplelessthatitis
intendedtohelp.Alsolessthanhalftheworldhaswelfare,andthatincludestheeconomic
powerhouse,China.Andontheotherside,thecountriesthathavewelfareincludesthe
countrythatspendingpowerhouse,USA.

Blocked
Whattowriteabout.Ivealreadywrittenaboutgovernmentandthepeopleatmylunch
table.Icouldwriteaboutsomethingnoonewouldunderstand.Orthingsthatpopinmyhead.
ThisiswhatitislikeformewhenIcantthinkofwhattowriteabout,anendlesslistofIcould
dothisorIcandothat,andnothingsoundsgoodwhenIstart.Theproblemwithcomingup
withideasisthatthethingsIampassionateabout,peopledontlike.AndIabhorthatpeople
thinkthatjustbecausetheypastacertainage,theythinkthatallthateveryoneelsejustthinks
aboutdrugs,sex,andhowtheyhateschool.Thentheythinkbecauseyourthesameage,go
tothesameschool,liveinthesamecity,thatyouarethesame.Itslikethatoneonline

bankingcommercial,almostyouisnotyouAndtheentiretimetheypreachthateveryonecan
do,say,andthinkwhattheywant,theyneveroncelistentotheirownwordsandthinkthat
someone,possiblyeveryone,doesnotthinkthesamewayastheydo.

SomethingPunny
Carryingthelargetraysoffoodtothetable,myyouthgroupgetsreadyforthe
pancakebreakfast.Aftereverythingissetupwesataroundtalkingtoeachotherwhile
waiting.Waitingforthefirstpersontowalkthroughthedoor.Thebreakfasthadjustone
purposes,wewerethankingthechurchforsupport.Takingourpositions,Istoodatthe
servingtablewithanotherfriendandwasinstructedtogivetwoofthelargepancakes.Soon
onepersoncame,anditwaslikeadamburst.Thelinewasoutthedoorwithmeandmy
friendfranticallyputtingfoodontheplatesheldbeforeus.Afterwefiguredoutasystem,I
heardmyfriendsaysomethingabsentmindedlyaboutmusic.Ithoughtforamomentand
struggledcomposemyselftodeliverthewonderfulbreakfastpunIeverthoughtof.Turningto
myfriendIsaid,Wecantusethechurchradiobecausetheeggsscramblethesignal.
Orangeyoualaugh,hereplied.Thisbeganustossingthejokesateachother.Most
ofthemwerepunsrelatingtocommentsweheard,butoneofmyfavoriteswasabout
Halloween.Everyyear,onNovember1st,thelittleoldladynextdooralwayscomplainstothe
cityaboutthespeedbumpsinstalledovernightandpaintedlikesuperheroesandmonsters.


Blank
Whydopeoplethinkthateverythingyoudoisthebestthingintheworld,evenwhen
theworkyoumakewasarandomsplashofcolor.Andyouonlygotluckythattherightperson
lookedatyourworkandspreadittootherswholistentothemandsetacycleofspreading
yourworklikeavirusuntilthepublicthinksyouareperfect.Afterthishappens,youcould
easilyjustgrabablankpieceofcanvas,signthebottomcorner,andgetmillionsfromselling
it.Butwhentherichandpowerfulfindoutthattheywerebamboozled,theymakeabigdeal
thatitisabstractanduniquejusttoprotecttheirownnecksfromembarrassment.Thenthe
publicbelievesthemandbuysevenmoreofyourart,onlyincreasingyourprofitfromdoing
nothing.Whendidthehumanracestartbelievingthatanemptypieceofpaperisa
masterpiece.

WorksCited
"ElliottErwitt."
ElliottErwitt
.Web.5Feb.2015.
<http://www.elliotterwitt.com/lang/en/index.html>.