by Sophia Dorshow
When walking the halls of Frontier Regional High School one can see the variety of people that make up our small school. There are the athletes and the “popular” groups, art people and the “smart” kids, and also, there are outsiders. Everyone has been categorized into a group without even knowing it, making it easy for people to look to their left and think, “Oh, I could never have something in common with them.” There’s one thing that everyone has in common, and will continue to have in common for the rest of our lives: we are the generation that is going to make or break America.
Leaders may say they care about the country, but not all necessarily care about the aftermath of their choices as long as it looks good for them. Laws are being changed every day and the effects are tremendous. For example, immigration laws are changing, separating illegal immigrant adults and their children, who are unable to reunite them without immense crisis. For many, Green Cards and asylum are being made harder to obtain. The Trump Administration has been openly against immigrants, even though President Trump’s wife herself, is an immigrant from Slovenia, who now has U.S. citizenship.
In two years it will be the 100 year anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote. Even 98 years later we see versions of sexism, ranging from unequal pay to being degraded and punished for speaking up for their pro-choice stance on abortion or about sexual assault. It’s hard for women, and men, to speak up about sexual assault and things related to that, but targeting them makes it harder. This generation is the one that can change this and make the sexual assault rates go down, and the women that were assaulted, feel safer in their community.
There are a large number of things for which people can be discriminated against These things, like race, sexuality, financial income, gender, or religion don’t affect other people. Why should one care that someone has a different identity than you? Why does that make someone more or less human? We shouldn’t care, and we are all human. The only way to fight discrimination is to accept everyone as they are, and not try to change them into someone to be liked. The world is changing, and no one can stop that. It’s time to grow up and accept people. Who cares if you look different or believe different things? There is always going to be some kind of hater, but if we grow up believing that we are all equal, then the number of haters is going to go down.
Problems in our country are not going to go away overnight, or within the next ten years, but it is up to our generation to initiate this change, because at this point, we are starting to take steps back. With the population growing and society becoming more and more technologically based, we shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not we are going to be treated as equals or if we are going to be safe living in a country where we are citizens. Most people face some kind of discrimination in their lives, whether it be because of race, sexuality, gender, religion, or financial income. One person alone can’t easily make a difference, but when combined with the rest of our generation we can solve the problems we are being faced with and move on to worry about a sustainable future for our country.