Intolerance: A Numbers Game

620,000.
An estimated number, but the constitution of the number does not change. It represents lives, the blood in which was spilled to defend what was known to be wrong, but was accepted as a possession. Like an ox, an animal not considered or looked upon to be as prestiges to a mustang, these people were worked until the skin on their knuckles teared away exposing the bone. As a nation began to fall to division, it was a righteous group pinned against an inequitable group. A conscienceless war, humans against humans for humans, fought because the color of skin determined who was superior to the other.
Sewing the tear of the stars on our flag had to be done in the way of the deadliest war fought in American history. Southerners with the immoral right to have slaves, and the involuntary determination to not give justice to those who were created by the hands of the same God. This war was tragic and horrifying, but its lessons were not and have not been learned. Throughout history and even before 1860, we as groups continue making decisions based on the quest of each other rather than as individuals. Our intolerance is a numbers game, when you put to use your own mind than the portrait of dark judgment may see a ray of light.
I am not a historian, I am not a psychologist, I am not yet a college graduate, but what I am is a person that understands the destructive behavior we have as humans. From facts to the hallways of a high school, I can see just what we have not changed in our conduct. Even as a two-term President of the Civil Rights Team at Biddeford High School, it is difficult to comprehend why it is we act on the impulse of others rather than the knowledge of ourselves. I could not agree more with the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. stated in paragraph 12 of “The Letter from Birmingham Jail.” http://www.mlkonline.net/jail.html
You and I walk the halls of our school, you and I see the intolerance students express towards other students. It isn't a matter of one student against another student, it is a group of students against another group of students. As a group we fuel each other's opinions and decision making, within this process the privileged gain the power. They harness what they have that gives them the advantage, and they are relentless when their principles are questioned. We are all students in this state of affairs, and whether or not you choose to sit at your desk and learn, who you are rather than who we are, is a decision that can be made only as your own individual.
Narrow and secluded the halls that make up our lives makes it more difficult to escape the impulse to listen to others. From those with more friends to those with more money, those with athletic ability to those with intelligence, those with color to those without; we continuously find ways to categorize each other, to stereotype each other and to restrict each other. We don't do this as individuals, we do this as coalitions. You don't laugh at those who can't afford the necessary items in life, you laugh as a group. You don't discriminate one another, you discriminate as a group. You don't repeal the freedoms of others, you repeal them as a group. Very rarely can you think of a moment in your life where you have not made a decision with the obligation of others in mind.
When life is good for yourself, do you think of those who aren't living well? When you have friends, when you have the luxuries, and when you have the privileges that others don't, not for one second do you think about lending your wealth. It is never seen when the “prosperous child” stands up from his or her lunch table to sit with the “losers.” If such a thing happened, what would your friends think? Would you be accepted? Oh my, would you lose all of those precious privileges? This is why we try so hard to not listen to ourselves, but instead follow the virtue of popular belief.
In 1961, a civil rights activist John Lewis enters a “whites only” waiting room at a bus station in South Carolina. Ku Klux Klan member, Elwin Wilson and other members beat John Lewis, leaving him bloody and bruised. The KKK is a group that still exists today but in 1960 was strong because it had the protection of its 'privileges' at stake. To allow a black man to enter their waiting room was outrageous. The incredulous hate of blacks in the 1960's and the treatment of them by whites proved that after 100 years of blood shed, we still had not learned our lesson. In 1787 when our founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence, they could not make a conclusion on slave trade, they decided that in at least 20 years a decision would be made; many generations and hundreds of years later, we had not fulfilled the promises made in the declaration. On ABC's Good Morning America, Elwin Wilson and John Lewis come together, and Wilson apologizes to Lewis. In a moment that stirs emotions, Wilson who had been as his son described “difficult to grow up with,” finds himself, not the KKK man from 1961, but Elwin Wilson, the man who realizes that the color of skin makes no difference. Elwin Lewis is validation that “privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily,” but acting upon the character of oneself, a new spirit is born.
There would be nothing dividing us, singling us out, given to one and taking from the other if we all were to be individuals. If we were all placed by ourselves on an island, the same island for each of us, no discrepancies. We could not act upon the thoughts of “we” rather than “I.” It would be straight forward, just and morally correct for the most part. If we live our own lives, not making it a matter of privileged and unprivileged, the world would be left with few problems. I am no better than anyone else, I have come to realize that I too make decisions based upon the collective thoughts of others, but through this piece of writing, I am sitting at my desk. For me the lesson is just beginning, I have many years of learning and evolving to do before I can be cleansed from “we” to “I.” I am human, I am no more privileged than any other, because if I was the things that I have lost would still be here. Coming to an understanding of what you have done wrong is the first step, looking to the lessons of history is the second step and what you make of step three is the purpose of the lesson,
to become a single existence.
To express injustice and intolerance against others requires more than the strength of one person, it is such a powerful and hateful entity that it requires a collective effort. When you sit at your desk, listen to the men falling at Gettysburg, listen to the apology of Elwin Wilson, listen to the cries of those in need, listen not to the voices of pressure and the evils of privilege, but to the strength of equality. It is time to find the morality of our individual, and give outset to right. Fulfilling the dream of conquering wrongdoing will only come when the light shines upon each of as individuals, dividing us for our just cause rather than our unjust character when the group's ideology is absorbed within us. I have learned more about myself in the few hours it took me to understand, analyze and write this, but what I realize when reflecting upon the message is I have been educated; we have all been educated each moment of our lives, yet we can't see what we hold ourselves blind to.

-Ryan Fecteau