A Little Awry
By Christina, age 16, Louisiana
She looks at you and the smile crossing her face is one worthy of the Shakespeare play you hold in your hand. She is so beautiful that moment that she walks away. Your heart sinks, wishing to devour that beauty once again - reach out and pull it back - but all the while you know everything you desire is everything you are denied. She's what keeps you breathing, and even though she's been ripped from your grasp, hope is such a wonderful thing. You aren't sure what you hope for though, nor are you sure what's to come. The only thing you are sure of is what you feel. You and she both know that you're the key to each other's safe, the one where they can't reach you, and the one where they can only make you stronger.
Every day you see a couple. Whether they are of the same race, religion, gender, or social standing, they're there. Every day you briefly think of them, whatever your views may be, and then every day they swiftly drift from your mind and are never thought of again. Not every day you stop to think, and not every day you look behind the surface. It isn't normal for people to wonder past the outside to think of what's happening on the inside. It isn't normal for people to generally care.
To put it frankly, people are idiots. It's just the way we're designed to be, and undoubtedly there are those few who play the role much better than the rest of society. When we're asked about liberty and what we think that means not everybody will agree.
Popular targets for discrimination are mixed couples - couples of different religion and those of the same gender. When looked at closely you can see that all three mentioned are very closely related - looked upon, talked about, destroyed. Individuals have all come to know that if the world doesn't like it, the world rids of it. Pathetically, most of the time the world wins.
Or, at the very least, attempts to.
What I've always come to believe is that discrimination has to end sometime, but I'm afraid that unfortunately it won't be anytime soon. As long as there are people inhabiting this earth there is going to be a lack of justice and equality, as well as a lack of love and loyalty.
I was planning to give some kind of example, but the limit to discrimination in this world is far beyond the sky. Someone once said that for everything that is wrong in America, there is something right. When you think about it, this hardly makes sense. Can all of the suicide be taken lightly because you and I decide to smile? Can murder be justified because other people are still breathing? Can all of the sickness in the world be okay just because people are healthy too?
Of course not, and none of the prejudicial tendencies can be tolerated because some people keep an open mind. Work with the good to get rid of the bad. Fight for something and stand up strong, because without issues, without beliefs - and there will always be a belief to oppose yours - life is a little empty. So take a stand. Fight for something. Spread tolerance for all, because life is a gravel road that everyone should have the right to pave.
Love is a beautiful thing, and if you have gotten nothing else from this passage, I pray that you realize everyone has a right. The right to love, the right to be loved, and the right to know that they can.