The Argumentative Essay: The Murder Of Rabbi Abraham Heschel

“A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inactions, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury” (Brainy Quote 1). Through my sixteen years of living, I have learned that there are wrongs in our communities, in our country and in the world. Just like I, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, from the Baltimore Board of Rabbis, believes “In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, all are responsible.” Heschel sends a strong message, hoping to terminate tragedies around the world by urging citizen involvement. As humans, it is our responsibility to do the right thing and it is crucial for us to consider the consequences of continued inaction. There are actions we can take to assume responsibility,
Although suicide may be considered a “personal choice”, we can all be considered guilty for not doing anything to prevent it from happening. On October 20, 2010 the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation asked people to “Go Purple” hoping to raise awareness about the reported deaths of eight teenagers who committed suicide after being taunted because they were gay. Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University was reportedly live-streamed by his roommate, having sex with another man. Tyler’s body was found floating in a nearby river less than a week later (Miller, Carlin). Jeffree Clark-Merteuil, president of the Gay Straight Alliance club at Frontier High School says, “A common factor with all these nine students, none of their schools had a gay straight alliance” (Local). By sending a message saying that there is something wrong with being gay and not having a gay straight alliance to help support these students, they felt that suicide was their only option. Despite the fact that we may not be responsible for these deaths, we need to take action, to accept gay communities so we do not have to see cemeteries filled with teenage