Declaration Pre-Writing Blog-Questions Three and Four

We have many rights; these rights include freedom of speech and religion. These rights are not always respected. Since the beginning of time, man has often put down those that either were different or had a different belief or opinion.

            Religion has been a point that rights have been disrespected for a long time for me because I often find myself in places that religion is not minded. It is okay to have different beliefs, but sometimes there are times when you feel mistreated and that the freedom of speech and religion boundary has been crossed.

            Although religion has historically gotten the majority of the attention, I feel there are many instances when my freedom of speech has been disrespected as well. You meet many people with very strong opinions and beliefs that in an effort to get their opinion across they force their idea upon you. It then becomes even more difficult to share your opinions without feeling consequences of our actions and we respond in different ways. In school we can choose to be quiet because we don’t want it to affect our grades. Outside of school we may join an organization that has beliefs that we share.

   It is amazing for a society that is suppressed to be “open minded,” but it is sad to see how close-minded we have actually become.

            It is difficult to get people to recognize that they have been mistreating you because it is not necessarily in the form of physical violence, but in our words and actions. The old saying, “sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” is not true. It is human nature to want to have people belong or a group together. In a society that is free and organized we are able to express our beliefs openly and often without the consideration of its impact on the people around us. The person listening does not agree with the belief or opinion they may be mistreated. The mistreatment may be in the form of exclusion fro a group or at school settings it may affect ones grades. If we look at the current political fight we see many politicians mistreating each other in an effort to win votes. For example, the guest politicians that appear on major news programs often have very strong opinions and are very abrupt with their answers. These men are expected to conduct themselves in diplomatic ways, but it is surprising to see these men interrupt each other with their words because they are so strong in their opinion. You can tell by the expressions on their faces that their words can hurt. This doesn’t just happen on T.V, but it also happens in everyday life, and people do it unconsciously.