Bonjour, Quand j'avais 15 ans, j'ai décidé de faire quelque chose un peu fou.

J'ai

acheté un billet pour la France, pris l'avion et j'y suis allé tout seul… i apologize if you

didn't get that. Let me try again .

My sophomore year of high school I decided to do something kind of crazy. I

bought a ticket to France, got on the plane and I flew there, all by myself. Okay so

maybe that's not exactly what happened but, for the most part it is. That year I was

apart of an exchange program where I ended up tossed from family to family in France,

barely knowing the language in a place that's genuinely nothing like home. I experienced

many bumps in the road along the way, from falling down a flight of stairs and ending up

in the hospital, walking down the street seeing military with semi-automatics, witnessing

the insane amount of protests and people who immigrated from other countries, and

being discriminated against and my family trashed on just because I was an American

in a different culture. There was a lot that was different and scary but it gave me a new

view of how my life back home was so different, how our lives are so different and how

others truly see us as Americans. Today I'm going to take you on a trip where we are

going to dip our toes into the waters by feeling our way through the contrasting ideas of

france and america. First ,before taking off on our trip we will look at the differences of

gun control rights between France and America. Next, we're going to fly into the

comparison of differing perspectives on immigration and then we'll land at our

destination and be shocked at the dissimilarities of the health care systems. once we

reach this final destination we'll come to the conclusion that while there are many

differences in our nations we can learn from those around us.

Now to start off our journey, do something for me, imagine you’ve just arrived in

France and stepped into the city for the first time looking at the strong, historic building

structure, and the hominess of the city. now, try this, imagine feeling safe in your own

home. You don't need to worry about the neighbor possibly having a gun or the kid

down the street having access to his parents shotgun for hunting. To even be able to
purchase a gun for hunting or for sport you have to undergo long psychological test to

even be considered to have access. I mean yes there may be some people who get

access to a gun illegally but the fear of being held down at gunpoint or just going out

with friends and potentially being in the middle of a shooting is likely to be way less. So

many Americans are content with gun laws because it's not guns that kill people right?

Its people that kill people, but to go along with what others are thinking.. Why is it that

we can have a gun in our houses in the room next to our children but we aren't even

allowed to have kinder surprise eggs in stores because that is something that is illegal.

No, no, no guns are fine but, chocolate with a toy that is deadly? I found myself walking

down the street in France just hanging out with friends and next thing I see in front of

me is 8 military men with semi-automatics looking all tough, and here I am just trying to

keep my cool, when really, I was scared, and yet felt safe and protected at the same

time. In the United States i once had a gun pulled on me and a group of people when I

went to a missions camp, and that was the most terrifying moment in my life. Shaking in

the fear that i didn't know what would happen next, but when in france and seeing those

men even with such large guns i just. Felt. safer. I never once saw a gun the rest of the

time I was there unless it was in the militaries hands and I never had to think twice

about whether the person next to me had a gun or not. Now I don’t know about you but I

don’t like the constant fear in the back of my head wondering whether I or one of my

loved ones might end up like one of the 17 killed in the parkland shooting or like one of

the 10 that were killed in my home Dayton ohio. Now I know my voice alone will make

no difference and there is not much that can be said or done but the 289+ mass

shootings in the US this year alone is frightening. (Allow for pause here.)

Not only do we have differences in gun laws, we have different ideas of how

immigrants should be treated.

In France, I can remember walking down the streets and seeing immigrants who

may not have had much but they were being treated with such love and compassion.

They were selling trinkets and such that they made by hand just to be able to put a
smile on somebodies face and a couple more dollars in their pocket to help establish

their life. In the US we are so scared of immigrants because the society that we are in

says to fear immigrants because they are going to take jobs away from people who

need them, or there is going to be a terrorist that just wants to see people suffer. The

thought of immigration today in so many people's minds just brings the ideas that they

are going to bring crime and terror in our country when so many other countries

welcome in immigrants with open arms. In Trump's speech on the topic of immigration

in the 2016 election he named 5 peoples names who were killed due to immigrants

bringing a light to those who were lost. This political move allowed him to start his “build

a wall” campaign to try to keep out the hispanics. He says the words “We will be fair,

just, and compassionate to all, but our greatest compassion must be for our American

citizens.” the thing is though that even immigrants are people too who are trying to find

a better life for themselves. While in France, I met a man who was in his early 30s who

grew up in a poor family in Pakistan until he was about 12 years old but then they

immigrated into France and he and his family made a new life for themselves in a place

they were so lucky to be welcomed into.

The people outside the United States don’t see why immigration is so bad and in

all honesty I don't truly understand it myself. I found myself sitting in an elgish classroom

in france surrounded by 25 kids my age and in class we were on the topic of the

american dream. Now once again imagine. Imagine you are growing up in another

country with an average life or maybe a really hard life and all you dream to do is to

move to a better place and create a life for yourself that will actually make you happy.

Marren Cahilig from the philippines has the idea that “America welcomes all different

races” because we are the melting pot of the world right? Now while we are pretty

mixed it doesn’t seem that some people of America want to mix it anymore than it

already is. Now rather than focusing on image or money there are places outside of us

like france that are focused on the values and opinions of the people inhabiting rather

than trying to put on this facade that we are something we are not.
 While everyone deserves the chance to look for a better life in a new country, in

the same way everyone deserves the rights to equal health care

it was a dark and stormy night After months of getting to know the city, …well

not really, it was about 7 in the morning but it was stormy. On this morning, I learned a

lot about the healthcare system in France. You see, I was walking to the metro, headed

to school just following the crowd down the stairs and all of a sudden only after a few

steps, my foot slips out from under me and I went bouncing down the stairs like a

bouncy ball. I end up at the bottom of my stairs with a sprained, swollen ankle and

soaked jeans. Simply walking caused me excruciating pain, so my host’s dad took me

to the Doctor, who referred me to the hospital for an x ray. After the x ray i went to pay,

do you know how much it cost me? 33 euros, which is only 36 dollars for 4 x-ray photos

of my ankle and foot. Now, fortunately, I had insurance which meant i only needed to

pay 600 dollars for the year but in Ohio the average amount for health insurance is 380

dollars, A MONTH and that’s on the low end of things. Now think, for an average middle

class family that may not seem like a lot but imagine if you are a lower class family and

your parents job doesn’t cover health insurance. If you fall down a flight of stairs or

something happens and you break a bone, what can you be expected to do? You start

with an X-ray costing anywhere from 300-1000 dollars which is not really easy money to

just throw around for most people. And then tens of thousands of dollars on top of that

for medical help and possibly even surgery, and everyone knows how costly that can

be. Think about if it was that simple to be able to go to the hospital and receive x-rays.

There is no hassle, no long nights waiting in the emergency room. It is simple. PBS

states that over 44 million people are uninsured in the United States and another 38

million have inadequate health insurance. Many are living with diseases, broken bones

or other life altering medical problems with no help because they aren't able to afford

the insurance to help.

 After examining our differences on gun control, comparing and contrasting

different perspectives on immigration and landing at the dissimilarities of our health care

systems, we have finally reached our destination. While I alone can not make a

difference and in all honesty not much change is going to be made from this single

speech, but from this we can see that there is not only one way to every situation.

Nous pouvons penser que l’application des lois et nos valeurs sont parfaites et la seule

façon, mais nous ne sommes pas seulement une partie d’une nation, nous sommes une

partie de l’humanité. nous devons continuellement apprendre et travailler ensemble

pour en faire un meilleur lieu de vie.

We may think our way of enforcement and our values are perfect and the only

way to go, but we are not only a part of a nation, we are apart of all mankind. we need

to be constantly learning and working together to make this a better habitable place.
 Works cited:

https://reimaginingmigration.org/what-are-the-predominant-stereotypes-about-
immigrants-today/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/us/politics/transcript-trump-immigration-
speech.html

https://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/uninsured.html