Ema+D’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

=Title of Speech= If we're all human, then why do we act like we're any better?

=Text of Speech=

Why do we act like we’re any better?

It took me a long time to figure out what to write about, not because I don’t care about certain issues, but because I felt as though I would end up giving a whiny, bitter rant of some nature on an unclassy topic in an unclassy way, which is what I usually do.

What I’m about to talk about may seem like a cliche topic, something that you all might hear quite often, but I see it disregarded all the time. When I told my dad what my topic was, he said, “Isn’t that like basic knowledge,” and then he was like “Oh wait you guys are juveniles, I forgot..” Anyway, no, I’m not here to slam all of you guys for forgetting this simple piece of basic knowledge, for I am just as, if not more, guilty of not acknowledging it as well.

Have you ever thought about what qualities determine a person’s life’s worth? Their intelligence, attractiveness, or athletic abilities? No that’s too shallow, you might say, how about judging them on how many friends they have, or how many people love them, or their soul? Doesn’t that better show what kind of impact they have on others? Last year, we had a mini unit in which we discussed this matter, and eventually “love” was deemed the most important factor. I have thought these things immensely over the past year or so, and I have realized that all of these “requirements,” including love, are useless (sorry, Mr. Dinkler), not only in judging others, but also yourself.

We are all equal, not because we have the same abilities, talents, or personality quirks, or because we are sons or daughters or loved by many, but because we just are. Okay, I know that you’re probably rolling your eyes at this basic concept, but I see it disregarded all the time, especially by elitist AP people, including myself…  To say that just because someone is more loved than they are better than another person is cruel and shortsighted. There are many things that must be viewed in the grey area, but I don’t think that life worth is one of these, because who am I, who are any of you, to say that one life is more than another, just because the difference in say, intelligence or good looks. Pretty basic concept, but I see many of us, including myself, forgetting it. We’re all in AP. Most of us are on our way to college, stable careers, and families. However, that does not mean we are any better than people working at McDonald’s or hoboes on the streets. If you are a kind person than that does not make your life worth any more than that of someone who is mean. Your life is not any more precious than that of a neglected child, who is loved by no one, so how can we say that love determines a person’s life worth. We do not know what happened in another person’s life that lead them to be poor, unsuccessful, drug addicts, or just bad people in general. Had we been born into their circumstances, we might have went through the same things. I am not asking you to love everyone, because that’s obviously very difficult; what I’m asking all of you, and myself, is to respect people and reminder yourself that your life worth is not any higher.

To those in here who know me well, you probably think that it’s ironic that I am saying such a thing, let alone making it the topic of my speech. In elementary school, I was constantly reminded with statements such as, “everyone’s life is precious,” and even as a third grader, I was very cynical. How is my life equal to those of criminals, or just mean, awful people in general? I thought. No, I wasn’t being elitist, I was just trying to figure out how my life, or that of anyone with decent character, could be equal to that of, say a terrorist, or murderer.

Entering high school, becoming “just a number,” playing sports, and competing academically, I came to judge my peers and respect people on how many of these “life worth” attributes they had. Stress, annoyance, and general bad teen attitude shaped by character into judging others constantly in a negative light. I mean, you see people from middle school who turn into stoners and fail their classes, and you start to feel more accomplished than them, which is true, but then you also gain this sense that your life is worth more than theirs, and if they died the next day, it wouldn’t make a whole lot of difference in the world, or change anyone else’s life since they’re like stoners and couch potatoes. I get that, and I’ve felt like that. But seriously, as human beings, how is our life worth any more than each other? We’re all going to die anyway.

Recently, I’ve come to realize how sad this logic is, because honestly, if you think that your life is worth more than anyone else’s, it sort of lowers you to the mindset of a murderer, because murderers see any life as worth as meagre since they kill people for their own convenience.

In the two years we’ve spent learning history, it seems as though people have gotten complacent with discussing deaths in war and such. I wholeheartedly agree that some wars were supposed to be fought, such as WW2 and the Korean War, but I dislike how most of us outrightly disregard the victims. They died for a good cause, so that was that? I mean, is it really okay to go around and think about war in such as black-white view that if people die for a good cause, then it is completely fine? I’m not saying that war is bad and peace is always good, what I’m saying is that war is sometimes needed but we always need to respect the victims, both soldiers and civilians who died, more. Any war can end up into a bad war, a failed war, where people die and nothing is accomplished, like the Vietnam War, any war can easily end up like that, no matter how noble the cause, and we need to start realizing that. Some war causes are really noble, and yes, people didn’t die in vain perhaps, but as students who weren’t even alive during these wars, as people who never had to experience the pain of knowing so many people who died in Vietnam, or Korea, or anywhere for that matter, it isn’t ok to say that it was all worth it without any sensitivity, or compassion.

In the America I grow old in, I want to see people who regard all life as precious and equal. I want to see people looking at others with respect, not contempt or disgust, just because they think they are better people than them. I want my future children who are in AP not to act elite to the college prep students in their school. And lastly, I want to see people making a point to regard deaths in war, and not just say that people died for a good cause and that was perfectly fine. Because we are all human, and we deserve basic respect, no matter how we are, and how we act.

=Cite Your Sources= myselves, my brains