Sydney de Leon

Salamone

GT ELA8 - 6

5 April 2017

A Compatible Life;

A speech on the discord of humanity and what could be if wed all just have a chat.

The great gift of the human imagination is that it has no limits or ending. This

wonderful quote from motivational speaker Jim Rohn tells many truths. We as humanity, have

something very special that differentiates us from other species. We have the ability to create

entire worlds in our minds at will. We have the power to daydream. We have an imagination. But

why tell you this, in a speech about civil justices? It doesnt seem to fit, seeing as imagination

itself has a very light hearted connotation. No, I tell you this because I intend to put your

imagination to good use today, but not in its whimsical form. You see, because we have such

things as imaginations, we have a powerful emotion called empathy. Empathy, unlike its

shallow brother sympathy, is described as the ability to understand and share the feelings of

another. Today, I call upon your empathy. I call upon your empathy as I tell you about the great

injustices that have been happening around the globe and as I speak of the plans to stop them. I

call upon your empathy as you hear the stories of the effects of these injustices. I call on upon

your empathy as I talk about a few wonderful causes that deserve and need support. I call upon

your empathy, not your sympathy or pity. Injustices in this world need your compassion, not

your condolences. So use that big imagination of yours. And listen not only with your head, but

with your heart.

The world as we know it is a tragically beautiful place, full of diversity and wonder,

though the worlds diverse inhabitants often get themselves into more trouble than good.

Although we as a society have a come a long way from the first days of organized civilization,

we still have a long ways to go in the equality business. People from all around the world still

today are subject to worlds of torment and cruelty based on the aspects that make them different.

Whether the cause be racial, gender, sexuality, or anything else under the sun, lawmakers and

society itself make living a normal life nearly impossible. Hate crimes and groups based in hate

run rampant, leaving these people no many options when it comes to their safety. Those who are

brave enough to be true to themselves and protest for their rights are looked down upon and

criticized by anyone who doesnt believe in their worth as human beings. This absolutely needs

to end. All people are born and created equal, regardless of differences such as race, gender,

gender identity, sexuality, etc., and deserve to be treated as such.

As I stated earlier, the world we live in is home to an ever changing array of diverse

people, and that diversity often causes problems. Is that diversity wrong? Absolutely not. Not at

all. The thing that is wrong, however, is the way people view it. Let us focus our attention on one

aspect of the equality movement for a moment. The LGBTQ+ struggle for marriage and equality

rights is one of the most prominent in today's media, ranging from discriminatory laws against

transgender people to hate acts against everyday couples that are part of the queer community.

Why is it that people fight against this form of love? Many people who argue against the

advancement of these particular civil rights often fall upon the argument that the queer

community is Unnatural or Going against nature's will. These arguments are completely false.
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In fact, in statement released by News Medical, it is said that Homosexual behavior has been

observed in over 1,500 different animal species, but the same does not hold for gay-bashing.

You heard me correctly, species as different as chimpanzees to underwater crabs are found to be

practicing homosexulaity, and doing it without remorse or ostracization. So why is this not the

same for humans? What truly seems more unnatural, having homosexual tendencies that you

have no real choice about feeling, or parents disowning their own children, throwing them out of

the house at as young as 11, for telling their parents that they have feelings for someone of the

same gender? This needs to change. Now, if I was to follow the guidelines of this speech, I

would now tell you about an organization to go along with my rebuttal. To further push my facts

if you will. However, I cannot for this particular aspect of the plight of human rights. While

researching at school on the school computers that we are given access to, causes defending

LGBTQ+ rights such as the Human Rights Campaign, the IGLA (International Gay Lesbian

Association), PFLAG, Lambda Legal, GLAAD, and countless others are completely banned

from student access, due to content including Alternative Sex Lifestyles. However causes

containing problems such as sex trafficking and drug abuses are not. What does this tell you?

What does it tell you about peoples opinions on the rights of their fellow human beings? Without

being able to research this type of cause, how will I be able to get you to truly understand the

severity of the problem that is the injustice towards the LGBTQ+ communities? The answer is

simple. I cannot. So let that roll around in your head for a bit, let it fester. I must move on from

this topic, that truly needs support, because I was not allowed by the school system to research it

into further detail. Let that fact fester.

Along with many other great injustices, having only one argument against the cause is

not the norm. Usually it is hard to even hear the voices of the through the waterfall of negative

comments and snide remarks. But what makes a good cause, and a good reasoner if I might add,

is acknowledging these remarks and questions, and responding to them with grace and

understanding, not just getting fired up and defensive. One of the most repeated arguments

against the advancement of women's rights is that it is simply Not a problem in today's life.

And on the grand scale of things, when looking at the downward spiral that seems to be the

world at this point in time , that reasoning may seem sound. I assure you it is not. While it is true

that there are other injustices that need support and attention and help, just because there are

other causes worthy of attention does not justify the action of the ignoring of another. The

Women's Rights movement is one of the longest on going problems the world has faced, and it

deserves as much attention as bigger problems such as world hunger do. Statistics show that

About 44% of all women in the United Kingdom alone have experienced physical or sexual

abuse by age fifteen. Another states that Only 76 out of the 196 countries of the world have

legislation that specifically addresses domestic violence, and only 57 of them include sexual

abuse. Even worse off, 10 countries around the world, women are legally bound to obey their

husbands. When did we, as a society decide this was okay? When did we, as a society decide

that it was alright for women to be looked down upon, looked upon as things, as objects only

good for raising kids and having sex? When did we, as a society, decide not to believe the

victims of sexual assault, and instead, accuse them of dressing to provocatively, accusing them,

that somehow this monstrous event that had befallen them had happened due to the length of a
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regulation work skirt. When did we, as a society, toss aside our founding mothers, our battlefield

Angels, our rocket scientists, our workers, our motivators, and decide that the work of a women

was only worth 79 cents of a dollar of a mans? I will tell you when, when the voices of women's

rights were lost in the waterfall of all injustices, reaching out, and desperately shouting over each

other, Pick me! Pick me, for I am the one that deserves the most help.

In the waterfall of pleading tragedies, there is another that has shone and been seen by all,

but never truly helped. In the very beginning, someone picked this one up and set out on helping

it. However, slaves were still slaves, foreigners were still foreigners. And so they gave up. And

so this particular injustice has sat, feet dangling from the edge of the falls, toes grazing the water,

waiting for someone to pick it up and for once, help it completely, no more bits and pieces, no

more excuses. Many have tried, but oh so many have failed. The injustice of racial prejudice or

racial inequality is an astoundingly dominant one in today's media, and yet, we are still

struggling for a solution. From situations as small as passing racist comments to horrendous

crimes and hate groups such as the KKK, the world is thoroughly divided when it comes to the

color of a person's skin, which in my opinion, is the absolute stupidest thing you could be

worrying about. Are we as a world, so upset over the amount of melanin in our blood that we are

willing to kill over it? Willing to separate families over it? Willing to fly flags of hatred and fear

alongside our countries banners of hope and bravery? Apparently, we in the United States, are.

There have been no true efforts made to abolish the confederate flag, although the symbol is

synonymous with horrible crimes against African American people, in fact, it's one of our state

flags! My next door neighbor of ten years, flies it proudly over her lawn, like its something to
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fawn over, to reminisce about the good ole glory days of the nation. And I watch, I watch as the

African American couple and their sons avoid her house like the plague, fear in their eyes on

what this lady might call them, might do to them. I watch, as the only effort to get this flag, this

great American swastika banned, is done by celebrities willing to give up 27.3 percent of their

net worth. That is right ladies and gentlemen, the only current effort to abolish this symbol of

hate is being done by Beyonc and Jay Z themselves. What has our nation come too? I will tell

you what it has come too, it has come back to the fundamentals of America, where we lived with

these hates, and only now have they come to bite us again. We live in a nation, where according

to the last FBI release in 2015, that There were 5,818 single biased incidents involving 7,121

victims. Of these victims, 59.2 percent were targeted because of a race/ethnicity bias. We live in

a nation, where not even children are safe from ridicule, from prejudice based on the color of

their skin. We live in a nation, my dear friends, where I was turned away from the community,

from friends and parents, for being of mixed race. I was turned away, targeted for being

Hispanic, for being proud of my heritage. I was told to Go back to Mexico where I belonged.

at age eight, in second grade, in one of coppell's very own precious elementary schools. We live

in a country, ladies and gentlemen, where it is normal for death tolls to rise by the days

passings, and for children to fear the color of their skin, the texture of their hair. We live in a

nation of racially prejudiced fears. These issues are real, and they are a problem. In a world of

darkness and defeat, it may be perceived as nearly impossible to find the bright spot, the saving

grace. Luckily, we have many amazing organizations dedicated to eradicating the injustice that is

racial
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prejudice. The causes vary from types you would expect, such as the YWCA or Black Lives

Matter, to groups such as the Rada Film Group, an organization that creates beautiful

documentaries about the multicultural world we live in, painting it in a hopeful, but true, light.

With help and support to these causes, and some simple common sense from humanity, we might

just be able to start the stop of racism, and create the world Dr. Martin Luther King jr. dreamed

about. It is just as author William Faulkner said, To live anywhere in the world today and be

against equality because of race is like living in Alaska and being against the snow. Support,

and common sense, small, yet at the same time, big steps for equality. Big leaping bounds for the

small injustice swinging their legs over the waterfall.

Back inside the waterfall of injustice, more and more problems call out, begging for

support and the help of the worlds people. In the mess, more and more problems are forgotten,

trampled beneath the pounding feet of their brothers and sisters, until they are nothing but dust,

forgotten names and causes. Another injustice stands in the back, but its voice is loud. The

injustice of religious prejudice is a deep rooted problem in the world. It ran rampant in the early

days of civilization, and continued to sprint, throughout the days of revolution, the beginnings of

the future, and its feet pounded the pavement during one of the most cruel times in the history of

the world, World War Two. In a war against the Jewish population of europe, the worlds

morality itself was shaken to the bone by the six million controlled deaths, controlled executions

of millions of innocents, children, husbands, wives, all because of a different god to worship.
One of the worst and bloodiest wars in the history of the world, was started over the pressuring

and prejudice against members of another religion, often telling them harshly that their beliefs

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are in fact those of an incorrect nature. People believe that this war was tragic, and it was. It was

brutally cruel and dark, but yet, like a twisted version of a merry go round, the world is back

again with another war against religion. This new war does not involve guns or concentration

camps, not yet at least, and I hope it stays this way. However, this war hurts in many other ways.

Currently, there is an extremely prejudiced and fearful viewpoint on people of the Muslim faith.

Words such as terrorist or bloodthirsty are dropped daily, yelled across streets at the girl

reading a book on the park bench, favorite hijab on her head. Yelled at the man in the airport

with an accent. Yelled at anyone who dares to be different at all. It's getting so bad that people

have sanely suggested, that well ace these people into concentration camps of their own, only

Humane. What sort of society would even consider this a suggestion? Would actually consider

repeating such a horrid offense against the nature of humanity? Ours apparently. Ours would. In

fact, a statistic released last year states that Along with acts of violence against the Muslim

communities, anti semitism acts are also on the rise. These problems are nowhere near being

solved, in fact, it seems that we are heading the opposite way. We in the United States alone

have tried multiple times to pass travel bans, banning mainly Islamic or Muslim countries.

People stuck in the airports were mistreated, even so going so far as having families handcuffed

to chairs, seated on the floors for hours. This is not a war against terror. This is a war against

religion. The wheel keeps turning. This needs to end. This needs to end, families being

tormented in the street for religious dress, needs to end. The burning of churches, of temples,
needs to end. The hatred needs to stop. The steps towards acceptance and love seem hard, but

what is the alternative? Murders against a group of people, another war, as bloody as the last? I

don't believe anyone would want that. And some people are more dedicated than others. The

people at CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) are dedicated to making America, and

soon the world, a better place for people of the Islamic faith. Someday, we, with their help, will

be able to make this world a place that is truly religiously tolerant.

As the end of my time grows near, I call out upon your empathy once more. I call upon

your empathy, to truly listen and believe that all people are born and created equal, regardless of

differences such as race, gender, gender identity, sexuality, etc., and deserve to be treated as

such. I call upon your empathy, your heart and your mind, to reach out to wonderful

organizations, such as N.O.W (National Organization of Women), the Human Rights Campaign,

the RADA film group, and donate your time, your help, to these amazing organizations that do

good for people every single day. I call upon your empathy, to remember the waterfall, to hear

it's crashing noise within your thoughts, and to realize that a bigger injustice does not qualify

leaving a smaller one behind. call upon your empathy, to stand up for your brothers and sisters

and siblings of different color, of different sexual orientation, of different gender, of different

religion. I call upon your empathy, not to protect them, but to amplify their voices, their

struggles, to stand alongside them and shout into the stone cold face of justice, and have him

reeling, reeling by the force of the roar. I call upon your empathy, to allow you to make a stand.

Make a stand, shout in the face of the world with all the courage and dignity and grace you can

muster, and demand the rights that are supposedly unalienable. Demand your human rights. Yell
to the world, and it will yell back, with love and equality, once and for all. Once and for all,

because a smile completely devoid of fear or loathing is a universal gesture. Thank you.