Steve
Evans
Ms.
K. Anthony
ENG.
101-111
20
FEB. 2014
Why
I Live the Way I Live
I believe that we all have a set of
beliefs, values, or principles that guide us through our daily lives. They can
be as different as the stars in the
sky or can be shared as a common thread or motivating factor within a group of
people with a common goal. I feel that most people’s beliefs, values, and
principles follow a positive path and help us as a society in the way we choose
to interact with each other throughout the world. The question of do people
believe in negative beliefs, values, or principles can be a difficult one to
answer. Not so long ago people showed respect based on the color of your skin,
your sexual preference, or even your gender. I believe in the past some people
would classify those as negative values, beliefs, or principles but it seems
apparent to me that society’s beliefs changed becoming more tolerant and
respectful of the rights of all people and the way they choose to live their
lives. My personal core belief of respect tops my list. My parents taught this
concept beyond all others, and put great importance on it and I chose it to be
the cornerstone of my beliefs. Respect can be shown in a gesture like the way
you talk to someone or how you treat someone, but it can take many forms.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary
defines respect in several ways such as;” feeling of admiring someone or
something that is good, valuable, important, and or a feeling or understanding
that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and should be treated in
an appropriate way”. I choose first and
foremost to start with the attitude that we all people do not believe the same
and our beliefs and values may be different but we as individuals and as a
society are entitled to own set of beliefs. To deny someone or something their
right to believe the way they choose and to live their life accordingly would
deny them the basic right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Throughout history people have fought and sacrificed in their attempt to gain
the respect and right to believe in their personal beliefs and live their lives
according to those values.
I was raised in an era that the nation
and its people believed differently and they openly and proudly displayed their
personal beliefs and protested for change. I can remember the nightly news on
the television and seeing college campuses filled with students coming together
with common goals and beliefs and showing their support in peaceful demonstrations
and marches. The Vietnam War was a prime example where a group of people did
not agree with the government’s views and policies and took to the streets to
voice their opposition and desire for change. Looking back, it appeared that
people forgot about the respect factor. The respect for everyone’s right to
exercise free speech. The older generation and the government saw the
protestors as un-patriotic and they attempted to somehow undermine the goals of
the administration at that time. It couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
I can remember Kent State University as one location where two opposing forces
collided with deadly results. Some college kids died because of an overzealous
National Guard that were armed and who subsequently fired upon the protesters
just because one side could not show the other side due respect. That simple
principle of respect or lack thereof changed the lives of so many so quickly. I
do feel that society’s changing attitude of ensuring no matter what our own
beliefs; we honor and respect the right of those whose beliefs differ. I also
believe that we as a world bear a long way to go.
I learned not only to respect other
people but to show respect toward all other things, living and not living. I
feel that the Native American Indian understood the idea of respect for all
things and they showed it in the way they lived. They never killed more buffalo
than they needed and they understood the delicate balance between them and
nature. It appears to me that they had mastered the concept of respect and they
understood the repercussions of living their lives without respect. My father instilled in me to also respect
items that I had purchased such as a car or a house. To have worked and saved
enough to buy an item and to not take care of that item would be a sign of
disrespect. To respect those things meant to take care of something. To place
value on something so as to treat it without respect, that item would suffer or
diminish somehow in its value, importance or worth.
Today’s society comprises many groups of
people that one desire is to be shown some form of respect in what they deem to
be important to them. Groups like
Greenpeace and PETA that put value on all animal life and try to effect change
by informing and demonstrating their core belief. There’s groups that seek
nothing more than the wanting desire to protect mother earth and its resources.
Included also are people that their main goal consist to somehow affect a
response of respect toward a value or principal that they feel passionate about. Can
someone say one group’s beliefs matter any less important than another’s? I personally don’t think so, but all we have
to do is take a look around the world and it is apparent that many do not
believe in the same definition of respect as I do.
It’s up to all of us to embrace the
simple ideology of mutual respect toward all. As I continue on my personal
journey through this world, I regretfully watch the slow demise and ultimately
the possible extinction of things that as a child I took for granted. I think
others feel this pain as I do. We have put such and importance on money and the
acquisition thereof; we suffer as a
society and we will continue to lose things that we already know we cannot
replace. To me, the knowledge of companies that exist today that put a higher
importance on profit than they do on the irreversible damage their committing
on a rainforest is disrespectful. The
realization that the annihilation of complete species that have yet to be
discovered or refusal to understand the magnitude of the destruction of an
entire eco-system is a sad commentary of where some of our society place’s its
importance. I will continue to offer and show respect to all that I come in
contact with and hopefully society as a whole will do the same. With some 6
billion people on this planet, all with their own beliefs, values, and principles,
we need to start with the concept of respect first. Without the aim or goal of
mutual respect, I believe that society will eventually suffer the consequences
and the outcome and the effects will be everlasting.
