For Generations To Come

Information that was meant to be in my story about education, but it really needs to be said in here.

          Something was made quite clear today. America is never going to grow up. Americans are never going to learn to get along and learn from the past. We are never going to move forward because we are never going to teach our children that discrimination is not okay.

      One of my relatives, who evidently fell for a rhetorical device online, stated that Arab culture teaches violence and hatred and it is un-American. Really? America was born and raised on violence. Just about all of the laws we abide by exist because we have a spiteful culture.

     Once upon a time, our country taught children to hate Jews. We encouraged and promoted hatred. Every time we say that someone was “Jewed,” we are teaching children to hate.

     Whether we know it or not, we learned how to hate African Americans. We grew up to people calling them names to the point where we do not know origins of these names or why. Every time a black was hung from a tree, we were teaching children to hate.

     Every time we discriminate against someone because of his or her rights, we are teaching children hatred. Every time we say what a bunch of terrorists Arabs are, we are teaching children hatred. Do you get the picture? If you do not, America is the most miserable hypocritical country in the world.

     You cannot convince me that America does not teach hatred because I was discriminated when I was younger. I was born in a small town. I was in special education.

     When I was going to school in Emmett, people were ignorant there. My teacher in Teen Living told the class verbatim that if she found out a student was gay she was going to send him or her to the school counselor’s office.

     I had the opportunity to drop my special education class. My teacher told me that I did not fit in. My biggest mistake was not dropping the class because I never had the opportunity as soon as I moved to Boise. Boise was the most ignorant place of all.

     My history teacher was showing footage of a black person being beaten by a police officer. While it played, he was laughing. When a student asked him if he was racist, he said yes. I had black teachers calling me a minority and called me a liar just to save her rear. When I refused to take classes that I already took in Emmett, I was told I was only taught to farm and not how to apply for a job and write resumes.

     If that wasn’t bad enough, they treated me like crap because I was in special education. They antagonized me on a regular basis and treated me as though I was incapable of remembering anything. They always told me that I was going to kill myself. It didn’t matter if I was upset about something or not. It was always, “One of these days you’re going to try to commit suicide, Jennifer.”

     After 9/11, children were accused of being terrorists. Children of all people. Refugees are fleeing to protect their children and they will only come here to face the same dilemma of discrimination. Children were asked why their faith attacked our country. Children were treated indifferently. Why would you do that to children? Why would you do that to anyone?

     This is one of the most childish things that we can do. The sad part is that there is not a damn thing we can do about it. Teachers in our country are untouchable due to what we call teacher tenure. They can discriminate and teach discrimination and there is nothing we can do about it. This is something that needs to be outlawed. Somehow we need to make a turn around.

     If we don’t teach hatred and violence in our country, why did Mohamed get accused of making a bomb and bringing it to school. He was a 14 year old boy who did everything a typical American teenager does. They make stuff all of the time. They knew it was not a bomb. He was merely a victim of student discrimination.

     He knows he was discriminated because he was a Muslim. He also gets it that other students face the same problem with discrimination. This is bullying and this is proof that teachers do it to.

     They will single you out for one reason or another. This is a behavior that needs to be outlawed. I don’t know what they are trying to teach. If it is a life lesson the student should be taught about anti-discrimination laws. If we can’t do that, we should not be discriminating at all because this is only teaching them that this is okay to do.

     They grow up to be us. We have terrible things happening in our world right now. History is repeating itself. It is not good history either. Do you honestly want this to continue? I want it to stop.

     We are glorifying hatred. We are glorifying violence toward other cultures by being arrogant about our right to bear arms. What about freedom of religion? What about the equal rights that we have been fighting for our Democracy to have?

     Do you ever stop to wonder why the youth from various countries are flocking to join ISIS? You cannot honestly think that ISIS is 100% capable of convincing children that it is cool to behead and terrorize. Seriously, their campaign sucks. Their ads are cheesy. We know how wrong it is to murder. We know their videos are disgusting.

     There is something that is teaching children that this is okay to do. That something is us. We are also a culture that teaches hatred and violence. If we have a problem with it, perhaps we should make some changes to prove it to Arab Nations.