Charlie Howard's 'Intolerance In 1984'

How can someone not like a person, based solely on what they believe? Intolerance is not always bad, but in most cases it is, and it needs to be stopped. Intolerance is the unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differs from one's own. Intolerance is being close minded and not accepting others views. There are thousands of stories, intolerance can be found everywhere, and there are many ways to get rid of it. There are many stories regarding intolerance, here are just a few. In 1984, Charlie Howard was thrown off a bridge in Bangor, Maine. Why was Charlie thrown off a bridge you may ask? He was thrown to his death for being a homosexual. He did nothing wrong in his life. He was a sweet, kind man, but just because he was
attracted to men, he was murdered. Not only was he murdered, but he was kicked out of his home right out of high school, and even woke up one day to find his kitten strangled.
So much hardship came to him, just for his sexuality. Have you ever heard of the town of Rosewood? In 1923, the town of Rosewood, Florida was rampaged, when a mob of white men were looking for a black convict accused with molestation. However, when they weren’t successful in finding him, they killed eight people, that we know of, and burned all the houses, churches, stores, and the school, to the ground. Consequently, wiping a whole town off the map just because the residents were black. What’s worse? The woman who was molested is rumored to be having an affair, and the man is thought to have taken things too far. Her, feeling like she had to share this invasion, but knowing she couldn’t speak of her affair, blamed it on an escaped black convict. None of the people killed were responsible, but even the burning of buildings to try and hurt the convict, might have been unnecessary. How about in 1660, when Mary Dyer was hanged for her faith. She, like a growing number of individuals, was a Quaker. Massachusetts was
against Quakers at the time, exiling them or putting them to death. Therefore, she was forced from her home in Massachusetts, and lived in Rhode Island with her husband. She often went back to her original home, to try and convince people that everyone could speak about religion. However, she was killed for speaking about her right to religion. There are so many stories about intolerance, but even these few tell the tales of hardship. In today’s day and age, intolerance shouldn’t exist.
But it does. There are many cases of intolerance still happening today. I have a friend who identifies as gay, and is very open about it. When I walk through the halls, I often hear his name paired with the word fag. It upsets me to no extent. How can people call someone something so disgusting for no reason? How about Larry Nassar, a gymnastics doctor? He went to court for molesting young women, under the guise of medical treatment, some of which were Olympic gymnasts. Usually court cases don’t stay in court for very long, and not every victim or witness needs to tell their story. Nevertheless, the judge of this case extended the court time, and allowed 156 of these young women to tell their stories in court, resulting in Larry Nassar receiving 175 years in prison. Human trafficking is illegally transporting people from one country or area to another, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. It’s basically modern day slavery. There are about 1.5 million victims of human trafficking in the United States alone. About 2 million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade. Human trafficking is intolerance of the law, and is just wrong. How can that many people still be put into slavery in
2018? Some ways to rid the world of this unfair intolerance are to increase laws against it, be a helping hand, and to even better yourself. If there were more laws against sexism, racism, homophobia, religious intolerance, etc., then it would be cut down. With a lot of rules in place, people would stop applying these close-minded opinions, or go to prison. The problem is the first amendment. If we make certain things illegal, people can claim it is unconstitutional. We can make physical intolerance illegal, but not slurs. Another thing that would help is people actually trying to help. In my opinion, not nearly enough people are trying to fix these problems, and what’s worse, the people trying to fix them are often shut down. People that are discriminated against for no reason need support. They need people that not only help them through the incidences, but people that help them speak up about them. Another problem is when people are unknowingly intolerant. An example is, when a teacher needs help moving something and says the words “I need a big, strong boy to help me move this”. A female student could be just as useful. Or when teachers wish their students a “Merry Christmas”, what about those students of other religious backgrounds? These are cases where a person isn’t outright intolerant, but accidently comes off that way through simple errors. The only cases of just intolerance is when it is against an enemy, such as terrorists. But, with zero intolerance, there would be nothing that requires just intolerance. My unrealistic hope is that one day there will be no intolerance anywhere, but eradicating intolerance is virtually impossible, although even improvement would be better.