Canella+L’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

=Walk a mile in my shoes (or in my case Jesus sandals)=

I’m going to start with a very important question. Can I have your shoes, any shoes? I promise this is relevant, Mr. Gieb. Thanks. (puts shoes on hands) “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.” -Atticus Finch, to kill a Mockingbird. So now that I have your attention, I’ll begin. This year has quite frankly, been difficult. Not because of the classes, except for maybe honors Pre Calc, unless your Jameson, then it was probably a breeze. It’s been difficult because of the Social strain AP US history has put on us, or maybe just me, who knows. As more and more of my peers revealed more and more of their views which I disagreed with, to say the least, the less and less I liked them. Eventually, it got to the point that I inwardly foamed at the mouth whenever I heard these opinions and took it out on the poor blinking cursor in front of me when I wrote the blogs for this very class. I kept thinking to myself how is it that so many people can think so selfishly and how can they be so narrow minded ( which may seem ironic coming from me.)

But then, after listening to a few speeches, I realized that I, myself, was also being narrow minded. Not because I disagreed, but because I didn’t recognize why they had those opinions, or considered what experiences had shaped those opinions. I wasn’t empathising with them, and for that I apologize. Empathy is something that is absolutely crucial for any belief. Whether you agree or disagree, empathy is what gives an argument its validity, because if you only look at situation through your eyes, you fail to see the full scope of it and end up with a very 2 dimensional view of the world. Any solution someone develops without empathy is a solution for a specific group of people, which isn’t a solution at all. By not empathising with classmates I disagreed with, I only deepened my own resentment towards those views and failed to see the real root of the problem, which was that my classmates views had also been formed without empathy, which is to be expected, we’re teenagers (the most self-centered of all age groups, except maybe newborns. ) I mistook this lack of empathy for selfishness, which is actually a pretty big problem which happens a lot in politics, probably why Congress doesn’t get much done..

But back to the point. I’m not sure if anyone noticed but I’ve been pretty vague as to which views I find lack empathy, mainly because I wanted people to listen to certain point, instead of tuning me out and thinking been there, heard that, because I think that if you take anything away from this speech, it should be that empathy is extremely important and that you should try and see through other people’s eyes rather than only focusing on yourself. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, it’s time to stop pussyfooting around. This is, afterall, my final speech, and it just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t voice my concerns.

People who are so keen on deporting illegal immigrants, stop. Please. You are not empathising. Yes, I understand you fear that they are here to take yerr jobs, and change your language and ruin yerr economy, but none of these things are completely true, and you’re not acknowledging exactly why people immigrate illegally. Poverty, starvation, and the possibility of death for their families are what drive people over the border in El Paso, not an innate need to poison the American way of life. Jeb Bush, JEB BUSH, called illegal immigration, “an act of love,” because for the most part, that is what it is. And the reason they just can’t wait for the process to immigrate legally is because that process takes about 5 to 10 years. According to Human Rights Watch, from 2006 to 2012 approximately 60,000 people died in Mexico because of the Cartel wars. 60,000 people died in six years, families do not have 5 to 10 years to sit around and wait, while their children are shot and killed in the street. And even if families do decide 5 to 10 years is okay, they’ll probably end up waiting closer to 15 to 20 years because 1.4 million Mexican citizens are on the immigration waiting list and there are only 26,000 spots available each year. I’m sure all of your parents would do anything to ensure you have a chance at survival and a better life, and that is exactly why people immigrate illegally in such vast numbers. If you were in their shoes, maybe all of the concerns you currently hold about illegal immigration wouldn’t seem that prominent in comparison. Also, according to Dr. Bill Watkins, an economist who served on a Board for the Federal Reserve and the head of CalLutheran Economic Research Center, illegal immigration is a great way to stimulate the economy and if it were up to him, we would have open borders. So, the economy isn’t really in danger, just another thing to take into consideration along with empathy.

Moving on, welfare. Guys, they aren’t leeches. Reagan invented the term welfare queen, okay, sure there are a select few of them I suppose, but for the most part, they don’t really exist. Not everyone is lucky enough to have the same opportunities as the people in this room. Not everyone has financial stability or access to a good education and as a result, they fall down on their luck. And that’s okay. It’s not because they are lazy, or stupid. The economy is rough right now and minimum wage isn’t exactly enough to support a family on. Walmart has food drives for employees for God’s sakes. And even if the “Welfare Queen” term was accurate, her children didn’t choose to milk the system or be born into poverty. They do not deserve to starve because of her mistakes, and if that means paying more taxes and not buying that beach house you wanted, sucks to suck. I personally value human life over green paper, and I feel that if you do empathise with people in need and still choose to be addimately against welfare and other social help programs, that isn’t a lack of empathy, that’s selfishness. But that’s another topic altogether.

And this last thing isn’t really big political topic, but it is worth mentioning because empathy does play a big part in it. If you offer food to a homeless person and they do not take it, and say they want money, please don’t be offended. They most likely aren’t faking their hunger, but you have to consider that they have nothing. The only they probably have left is their dignity, and they are probably willing to starve if it means holding onto it. Which is probably why they ask for money, so that they can go buy a meal instead of eating your scraps. I mean there’s always a chance that they’re addicts and need money to feed their habits, but chances are it’s the prior of the two, and they don’t further degrade themselves by literally eating your scraps.

I could keep going, but I don’t want this to devolve into a rant, so I’ll get to my point. Daniel Goleman author of Social Intelligence wrote, “Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action.”

In the America I grow old in, I want people to empathize with one another. To get their heads out of their asses and to recognize that not everyone has the same opportunity as them, and that they should not be so quick to judge something which they do not fully understand. In the America I grow old in, I never again want to hear people call immigrants good for nothing job takers, poor people lazy leeches, or non straight people heathens. In the America I grow old in, people will recognize each other as people, made of the same flesh and blood, working towards the same goals, struggling to survive in the same world, and ultimately, striving to be a productive part of what we refer to as the human condition.

So before you prejudge someone or feel the need to complain about how they’re leeches, please take into consideration the daily struggle they must face, and place yourself in their shoes. Thank you.