Ernesto Hudson
Bel Air Speech and Debate

Acceptance


Parminder Singh was a man who accepted a job as a computer engineer in Helena, Montana. He had a good job, a decent house, he liked the environment of Helena and he even commented that some people in the community were nice. Yet, the only several months later he boarded a plane and left. He felt that he was unwelcome and that he would never fit in. While a large population of Indians living in Helena, Singh is the only one from Punjab, and the only local Sikh. He said that the stares, the comments and jokes convinced him to leave. People would joke about the way the Computer Engineer resembled Osama Bin Laden and they would associate him with the al-Qaida terrorist group. People treated him horridly because of his race, appearance and social status. He is not alone.
According to Tolerance.org, it is estimated that by the end of today at least eight blacks, three whites, three gays, three Jews and one Latino will become hate crime victims. We need to learn how to accept others for there differences in race, beliefs, sexualities, disabilities and other differences. We must all have achieved a level of acceptance for people on personal levels, group levels and community levels to be able to live peacefully on this planet.
The easiest form of acceptance is to accept someone personally. All you have to do is just show them that you care about them. If you ever see someone alone or that seems lonely, you should just try to invite them to eat with you, watch a movie, or just call them. You can even just talk to them. A lot of people would even give up their individuality to get some attention. A lot can not have this attention they can not have. I met one of my best friends at a summer camp that I used to attend, he was eating alone and he looked somewhat depressed. I thought that it was probably his first year there. So I decided to ask some of my friends to see if they wanted to go sit with him. Most of them, being the ill-mannered people that they are said that if he wanted that he should come sit with us. So I, along with one of my friends, sat with him. It turns out that it was his first year there. After we finished eating he just said “thanks” in a low voice. It made me feel sort of happy to have done what I did. I made him feel accepted into our group. I guess you should just think of how it feels to be in their shoes, being all alone is not a nice feeling.
Another way to show acceptance to people is to accept groups, such as families. When my family moved into my neighborhood we didn’t know anybody. Moving into a new place may sometimes make you feel awkward and scared but thanks for my neighbor who made us feel welcome by introducing us to her family. Also just like in Montgomery, Alabama after hate mail and nails were thrown a black family living in a former all-white neighborhood, a woman left a rose attached to a card with the words “you are not alone” inside. Also, news coverage of Parminder Singh made the community of Helena look horrible; an issue that could have been avoided simply by people accepting that he is from a different culture. You don’t have to bake your neighbor a pie or give him a pint of sugar to make them feel welcomed, just give them a friendly hello whenever you see them.
Now is time for the hardest form of acceptance. Acceptance of communities is the hardest yet most rewarding of the three types. Communities include groups based on race, nationalities, religions, sexualities and disabilities. These are the hardest to accept because most of the people who believe in segregating them were taught since birth to dislike these cultures. The most disliked cultures are the Black community, the Jewish community, the Gay community, and the mentally disabled community. According to infoplease.org, there were approximately 7,489 reported hate crime incidents in 2003. These incidents are estimated to include over 9,100 victims. Even though these numbers may seem low, there is a person behind every number. One of the victims of hate crimes was brutally pistol-whipped 18 times well at the same time he was being robbed, tortured and finally murdered. He suffered from a fracture, from the back of his head to the front of his right ear, catastrophic brain stem damage, and about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face and neck. He died around 3 a.m. on October 12 at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. He was Matthew Sheppard of Laramie, Wyoming. His murder led a public debate of the issues concerning homophobia and gay-bashing. There is no reason for these hate crimes. If you can not accept someone for there differences, then you should live by this quote, “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you to where you want to go, no one else.”
Acceptance makes everyone feel welcome. We must learn to accept and befriend or to ignore and shun. This is a problem that many of us have and will face throughout the years.