Student Article: Welcome to the World Today

By Amanda Brooke from West Boca High
Take a look around you. Look at all the faces surrounding you as you sit in math class, or at the park. Are they happy? Are they smiling? They may appear happy, but perhaps that joy is only temporary. Around the world, millions of people face oppression within society on a daily basis.
Welcome to the world today, take a look at how the U.S. Government handles laws; we have bans on anti-discrimination. In what way does prohibiting kindness towards others make any logical sense? Is it not bad enough that fifty-five percent of students feel unsafe in school due to the harassment they receive for their sexual orientation, and thirty-eight percent due to their gender expression (GLSEN*)? They say we should keep distances between church and state, but then they turn around and deny gays services based on beliefs. The courts rule in favor of places such as Hobby Lobby, who won’t help their employees get proper contraceptives, yet Hobby Lobby is willing to give money to companies who support birth control. Why do we put religion before the greater good, if we have such freedom from religion?
Let’s talk about suicide and scarred up thighs; let’s talk about the grades that are dropping lower, as teens are getting higher. Transgenders have a higher risk of being murdered than soldiers in the Afghanistan war, one out of eight compared to one out of twelve. About 38% of the homeless youth are gays and lesbians who have been kicked out of their homes due to whom they love. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, there are 293,000 rape incidents every year, and those are just the ones that get reported. Of all those sexual assaults, 47% of the rapists were family members or acquaintances. What’s going on? How do we stop it? Welcome to the world today.
People in magazines tell us if we want a future, we need to be skinny, beautiful, and tall. Eyes all around are judging us based on looks, fashion, and behavior, but what about what’s inside of us? Doesn’t our personality count for anything? We live in a society where little kids can’t stand to look in the mirror, for fear of blemishes or having too much meat on their bones. Middle schoolers starve themselves to fit a size zero, while the others shove fingers down their throats, because ‘the calories don’t count if it’s not fully digested.’ The rate of eating disorders in ages fifteen to nineteen years old has increased every decade since the 1930’s, according to the National Eating Disorder Archives records. Unimaginable pressures are put on everyone to do their best, be the best, look the best, but what about our health? What about our sanity? Parents tell us that school is our jobs, that boys will be boys, but does anyone tell us it’s okay to be a little selfish? No, because grades are more important than our well being. Welcome to the world today.
When will Congress wake up and realize that people can no longer survive on minimum wage? Maybe in the 1960’s people could live off twenty dollars for a week, but now that will buy you a box of cereal and some apples. And how is it, exactly, that when a man does the exact same work as a woman, it’s decided he deserves more than her? I don’t remember a consensual discussion occurring in which it was deemed that a male’s labor is worth twenty-two cents more than that of a female’s. We give millions of dollars to celebrities and athletes, but what do they offer to the world? Nothing. We throw money at them like it grows on trees, meanwhile, there are hundreds starving on the streets; they just want to know when they’ll receive their next meal. Welcome to the world today.
We thank the lawyers for getting us out of jail, we thank the doctors for saving lives, but we never thank the teachers who taught them to be the incredible people they now are. No one just wakes up as the top lawyer in their state; they’ve all gone to school. So many people who deserve our thanks get overlooked. Without farmers, we’d have no food. Without teachers, we’d have no intelligence or understanding. Without journalists, we’d be disconnected from the world around us. Lawyers, doctors, businessmen, they are all wonderful, but we must not forget those who do the background work. Welcome to the world today.
What are we doing to our Earth? What is happening to our society? We twist the words of oppression to make everything disguised as being great. Nothing is truly great, we are all in major peril. We need to stand up and make a difference. We need to fight for freedom — for our true freedoms. We need to stand as one nation, for liberty and justice for all. Welcome to the world today.
*Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network

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