So o you may have noticed that I've been posting very little recently. I'm on vacation and in top of school, homework, binging "The Handmaid's Tale" with my grandmothers, a speech tournament, and me taking some time for me, I haven't had any down time to post up until right now. Since I'm exhausted, I'm just going to post the speech I gave this weekend, I think you'll find the message good.
Life is a river-or at least that's how we're going to think about it today-and we are all people, floating down the current. There is no reward for making it to the end of the river first, since the prize are the sights you see and the people you meet along your journey. Now, here's the tricky part. Some of us are born riding yachts, some sailboats, and rowboats. Every person in this hypothetical is born into a unique situation that they have absolutely no control over, just like they are in real life. We're going say you were born onto a nice cruise ship and you've always experienced smooth sailing and everything you could possibly need was handed right to you. One day, your boat approaches somebody who is paddling along with nothing but a plank of wood. You have so much and they have so little, so you decide to ridicule them. Humans, please be nice to each other. Okay, it may seem outrageous that I have to say it, but we see it in our everyday lives-in public or even in our own homes. People are rude to others so often that we have stopped batting an eye at it and have begun to accept this sort of behavior as normal. How terrible is that? I am here today to speak out against violence of any nature and to inform all of you as to why it is pointless because we are all the same. So once again, humans, please be nice to each other. Everybody has been on the receiving end of hurtful words and actions. Everybody knows how it feels to be belittled, so what I struggle to understand is why anybody whose has ever been hurt in such a way would turn around and do same thing to another. Studies show that some of the primary reasons somebody will be unnecessarily rude to another are 1.) personal issues, 2.) learned behaviors, 3.) low self-esteem, 4.) cultural divides, 5.) emotional immaturity and low emotional intelligence, and 6.) personality disorders. Now, these are all super valid reasons-some more so than other-as to why somebody may lash out with seemingly no trigger, but there's still no excuse for this kind of behavior, since, when we look at victims of such attacks, they are, in most cases, being isolated and called out for reasons that are beyond their control-primarily but not limited to race, sexuality, gender identity, religion, and appearance. As you know, we as human beings cannot help any of these traits-similarly to how that person cannot help being born with nothing more than a plank of wood-and these traits are part of what defines who we are, but in these situations, these characteristics are being seized and twisted to be used against us and to make us different. We are separated into divisions that are completely of human design. We are forced into this endless wrestling match for superiority. We are taught this hatred for one another. We are taught about "us" and "them". We are taught that we're better than you. Ever hear of patriotism and nationalism? It's the same concept. We are taught all these things and eventually we learn them for the express purpose of division. This system of isolation was created for and by the people who exploit it. The people who want us divided and pitted against each other, because they want us weak. The want vulnerable. They want us alone, so that they can use us. So that they can bring us down, belittle us, and make us less than them. But you know what? Apart we may be weak, but together we are strong. And that my friends, is why this system of divide, this system of endless violence is, in fact, pointless. We're bitten, we bite back. We're screamed at, we scream back. Conflict leads to more conflict, and if nothing changes, that is that way it will always be, so humans, please be nice to each other! We're back on the river. That person with the plank is paddling by again, but this time, before you insult, you think. You think about what this person has gone through and how hard it must have been to get so far with nothing but a single plank of would. You consider that maybe once they had an entire vessel, but it was torn down in some accident and this was all that
