Human Rights

To my fellow and future generation:

Today I would like to discuss a world problem that has been at hand for far too long. However, though it may be a world problem I would like to focus on how it specifically affects America. I’d also like to suggest a plan for us to solve this problem and although this problem may not be automatically resolved I believe we as students together can work to solve it. Together I believe that we can begin to solve human rights. But before we begin the quest you must first be educated on what human rights are. My plan for success is to show you the small steps we can start with to achieve our result of human rights.

Human rights are according to dictionary.com is a right that is believed to be justifiable to every person. I have today conducted a list of what I believe makes a human right. After explaining each of the things that make human rights I will tell you what I believe we can do to make human rights a reality. The things on my list are as follows: LGBTQ+ rights, Race and Gender, access to basic needs, and religion.

The first topic is a rather large one and is extremely important especially here in America. LGBTQ+ rights. I myself am part of this community so when I write here I am talking to people not only in my community but more importantly to people outside. To better understand our community you must learn about it. The first thing people need to understand is that being LGBTQ+ is not a choice. We don’t just wake up one day and decide we swing one way or the other. It is an awakening and a realization. LGBTQ+ rights has been a fight that has been going on since the beginning of time only now is it being addressed and taken in for. However, though it is being addressed that doesn’t mean all good things. Many teenagers are too scared and afraid of being shamed, bullied, kicked out of their homes, and losing the love of their parents to come out to them. Being who you are is a basic human right. Loving people is a basic right. So why is it so looked down upon? I believe that we can do better and to do better we must take action. Teenagers and children need to know they have a safe place to go to, people they can trust to care for them. We as a generation need to become allies to this cause and put out things like hotlines, shelters, and even just kind words to let these teenagers know that we are here to help them.

The second thing I would like to discuss is race and gender. During this last year, these things have been some large topics, especially race. On May 25, 2020, a man named George Floyd was brutally killed by three white police officers for the color of his skin. His death started the beginning of an act called Black Lives Matter. Black lives matter is a fight for people with color in their skin. It is a movement protesting against police brutality and people who are racist. Because we cannot control the color of our skin this fight is especially sad. I think the best way to deal with this fight is to accept the fact that we do not choose skin color and to recognize and educate ourselves about racism. Another thing I would like to bring up is gender. Gender falls into two major categories that are huge issues. The first one is transgender people and the second is feminism. While the topic of being transgender could also fall into LGBTQ+ rights I want to discuss it here. On January 22, 2021, republican Greg Steube introduced H.R 426. Which in summarization is an anti-trans legislation that could lead to genital exams for girls in school. His goal is to aim to ban all transgender girls from playing sports. No person no matter who they are, no child should ever have to be forced to show their genitals to prove that they are who they say they are. To make a change to fight against this, you can sign this here. (Share petition · Alabama State Senate: Please Join Us in the Fight Against Anti Trans Youth Legislation · Change.org) Gender is extremely important and feminism falls into that. Throughout history, women have been pushed down and ignored. Feminism is something that says no more. Feminism fights for equal rights for genders. It is something that says, “We women are just as important as men are. We fight to make a change as well.” Since feminism is such a large topic and there are quite a few things I do want to get to I am leaving you with this link that can educate you more on feminism and how to support it. (What Are Feminists Fighting For? (theodysseyonline.com))

We all sleep, but not everyone has beds. We all need to eat, not everyone has food. Women/some nonbinary folks and transmen have periods, not all of them have access to feminine products. We all see the homeless person on the street corner, most people just drive past trying to ignore them. When did this ever become okay with you? When did it become ok for people to not have basic needs? You may fight me on feminine products and say, “well they can’t give them out for free.” Well let me humor you for a second, the last conducted research of the number of women in America was in 2016. At that time there were 16.2 million women in America; there is currently 17,482 homeless woman in America (conducted research in 2018). Assuming 16.2 million women/people in America have a place to live then we assume that they can buy feminine products. The average woman/person spends $6.00 a month on feminine products. We can assume that in a lifetime a woman/person spends around $5,760 on products. We multiply that by 16.2 million women/people which gives us 92,160 billion dollars. That is how much the feminine product business is worth. Surely they can spare enough products for homeless women/people. In the end, they would only lose one million dollars in 80 years. Which would in the end give them 92,159 billion with lots more incoming money and to be realistic they would only give out the products for free until the woman/person could pay for it themselves. Either way, the market would barely lose anything. And it would be all to help these women/people get on their feet so that they can be presentable enough to get a job. But what can you do about this? This one is trickier than the others. But in my personal opinion, I would say to our generation to do what we do best. We need to boost this on social media! We as a generation have done so many things through social media influence and we can make a change if we do this. We can also donate food and other things to shelters to help people out. We cannot doubt our influence because we can make a difference.

There are a million more things I could talk about to make a difference in human rights in America but I want to bring up one that we need to all understand. Religion. I myself am a history major. That means I have done a lot of research on religion and belief systems. I myself am not religious and it’s easier to view religion and see it from all angles. I have also from the outside seen the hate, discrimination, and harsh words other religions say to each other. I have seen Islamic peoples, Christians, Muslims, Hindu people, and many more fight like tigers. I have seen Atheists and Satanists hated for what they believe as well. We all have different things we believe its part of human nature. We have agency. We get to choose what we believe but we don’t get to choose what other people believe. Hating each other is not going to change belief and if they are devoted to their religion or not religion and you tell them about what you believe they probably won’t budge. But chances are if you are kind about telling them what you believe they won’t get upset at you but respect that you believe differently. I just think the way we can deal with this problem is through respect and acceptance.

Today I would like to conclude with my plan of human rights in America. Human rights are something we can all work for and the major role of it all is acceptance, kindness, and education. Together I believe that we can work to become the best people that we can be.