I am a lover and frequent user of elaborate metaphors so here is one:
We all walk around wearing a theoretical pair of glasses with lenses that skew the way we perceive the world around us. These lenses have specifically crafted prescriptions based on external, conspicuous sources in our lives. These sources are influential in the way that we form outright opinions, as well as the way we form unconscious biases. Because of this information, it might be easy to justify why we cannot always see eye to eye with others, right? Well, not to me.
Today in the United States, it seems that we have a hard time understanding and executing the relatively simple concept of verstehen. In its most basic definition, verstehen means having the ability to put …show more content…
Being a woman and belonging to the LGBTQIA community, many of the issues being disputed today will come to affect me and how I am able to live my life. Will my job pay me significantly lower than my male counterpart? Will I be discriminated in the workplace because of my sexual orientation? Will I be able to get married and have the same rights as a heterosexual couple would? I can fight for what I believe in to no end, and believe me I do, but ultimately it is up to the people in power to make the decisions regarding my life and how I am permitted to live it. The way we decide to treat our fellow human beings has an astronomical effect on our society as a whole, whether we think so or not. I believe it is a complex issue with a pretty simple solution. We cannot change this country without first changing our perspectives and our hearts. In the inspirational words by President Abraham Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We are currently a country divided and I think it is about time that we put our petty prejudices and biases behind us, try on some new glasses, and change this world for the
We all walk around wearing a theoretical pair of glasses with lenses that skew the way we perceive the world around us. These lenses have specifically crafted prescriptions based on external, conspicuous sources in our lives. These sources are influential in the way that we form outright opinions, as well as the way we form unconscious biases. Because of this information, it might be easy to justify why we cannot always see eye to eye with others, right? Well, not to me.
Today in the United States, it seems that we have a hard time understanding and executing the relatively simple concept of verstehen. In its most basic definition, verstehen means having the ability to put …show more content…
Being a woman and belonging to the LGBTQIA community, many of the issues being disputed today will come to affect me and how I am able to live my life. Will my job pay me significantly lower than my male counterpart? Will I be discriminated in the workplace because of my sexual orientation? Will I be able to get married and have the same rights as a heterosexual couple would? I can fight for what I believe in to no end, and believe me I do, but ultimately it is up to the people in power to make the decisions regarding my life and how I am permitted to live it. The way we decide to treat our fellow human beings has an astronomical effect on our society as a whole, whether we think so or not. I believe it is a complex issue with a pretty simple solution. We cannot change this country without first changing our perspectives and our hearts. In the inspirational words by President Abraham Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We are currently a country divided and I think it is about time that we put our petty prejudices and biases behind us, try on some new glasses, and change this world for the