What Ever Happened to "All Men are Created Equal"?

Looking around today, you see people being mistreated for what they look like, rather than who they are as a person. Then you turn around to see someone else talking about how "It's modern times. We've eliminated racism, sexism etc. in our society. I can't believe people used to do terrible things like that." The problem is, people still do. There is still racism and sexism in our society, as well as many other kinds of discrimination that people are ignoring because they want to believe that people have matured enough to see past what people look like. "It's 2008, so that can't be an issue any more." The problem is, they're wrong.

One example of a major social issue in today's society is genocide. Most people have heard about the genocide going on in Darfur right now, but that's not the only place that has experience similar issues.

Less than 20 years ago, there were conflicts between the Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This resulted in the genocide against the Muslims by the Serbs. There were 200,000 deaths!

This article talks about what happened in Bosnia-Herzegovina during this time.

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/bosnia.htm

Now I'm sure you are wondering how this relates to problems going on right here in the United States right now. People decided that they were upset with the other group, and decided that the best way to deal with the problem is to try to eliminate the people entirely. Everyone knows that violence is not the answer. It's one of the first things our parents teach us when we are kids. "Use your words to solve your problems." It would be nice if people could take their own advice.

Racism still exists in our country today, and we need to do everything we can to eliminate it. In this speech by Barack Obama, he talks about race. It is a very prominent thing in the election going on right now. Both our Democratic candidates are part of minority groups, Hillary Clinton- a woman running for president, and Barack Obama- an African American man running for president. Barack Obama is doing everything he can to make people see past was he looks like, and listen to is political views. It is very different for him running for president than it has been for any other white man that has represented our country throughout history. He is forced to face many more issues that other presidents never saw as a speed bump towards their road to being a leader.

This is the link to the speech that Barack Obama delivered in Philadelphia:

http://morganwrites.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/senator-barack-obama-addresses-race-at-the-constitution-center-in-philadelphia/

Another thing that I have heard, is that people think that if Barack Obama is elected president, then it will prove that racism doesn't exist in the United States. Personally, I think that's crap. The fact that people are still trying to prove that racism doesn't exist, proves that it does. The day racism is gone, is the day people look at someone and don't register what color their skin is. Barack Obama has worked so hard to make people see beyond his color, but the fact that he has to proves that racism exists. His job campaigning has been a lot harder than some of the other presidential candidates because he has to work around people's racist minds. It's not fair that someones voice isn't heard because of the way they look like.

I hope that we can all look at the issues that are going on, both here and throughout the world and try to understand that ignoring to problems won't make them go away. Acting on what you feel strongly on, is the best way to make it better.