We as people have the need for normalcy. What exactly can we say is normal? I don't think anyone will ever be able to classify what is, and what's not, because everyone in this world has a different opinion about what is and isn't normal. As human beings we tend to classify everything into a certain category so that we know what 'it' is. The 'it' in most cases is people. People are not just one race, religion, inheritance, or anything else that consists of only one thing. We as people are from all different walks of life.

       We tend to just classify or judge others by the way we look, dress, act, and by every other thing about someone in only a few seconds. Most of us find that this is normal because everyone else does it. We do not in most instances go over to the person we are judging and get to know them. Yet, we get defensive if we think we see someone judging us by a certain thing that's done or said. Whether it be from a dirty look, or any other thing we see as another person judging us, we get very offended.

         We say, "I absolutely hate it when other people judge me. I wish they could get over themselves." Then we turn right around and judge someone else by something we think isn't 'normal'. The 'normal' for some people may not be the same as another person's view; such as tattoo's, piercings, being a biker, or any other thing that is frowned on in society. We also say, "Do not judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes." Yet, it seems like no one really believes it unless someone is judging them. From experience of being friends of people from all walks of life and from all nationalities, races, cliques, and religions, I've learned that the people that they are associated with or the way they look isn't always how they are on the inside. I've known some of the biggest drug addicts to be some of the nicest people and some of those people would give you the last penny they had so that you could buy something if you needed it. It's the same way with the richest people. There are also many drug addicts that will do some really nasty things to people and some of the richest people will do the same.

         It's sad that we have to classify each other into a certain group or category. Animals are classified by breed, looks, genetics, and by many other things. Do we consider ourselves to be animals? One topic, that is a huge controversial issue in the way we treat others as animals, is the war in Iraq. We went into a neutral country to look for weapons of mass destruction, that we never found, and we started a war. We call the Iraqi citizens terrorists because they crashed airplanes into the twin towers. It's been proven that the people who did that were not Iraqi citizens, but said to be from the AI-Qaeda and from Saudi Arabia (Hussein's). Saudi Arabia is supposed to be one of our allies. Even still, we are at war. The United States has 'morals' and certain rules we have to follow in this war but we choose not to follow them.

       Our own troops have done some really nasty things to many prisoners of war, but we don't hear about what the government is doing about it. Think about the Abu Ghraib abuse (Abu). Our troops are treating them horribly and we say they deserve it. Do they? The United States says they are terrorists, and we do these terrible things to them, yet, we get offended when they rebel and when they call us terrorists. Why? We, as citizens of the United States, also see the things happening like the Jessica Lynch story. An Iraqi citizen, who was a highly thought of lawyer, with a wife and children in Iraq, was the one who helped the United States Marines to rescue her (Iraqi, AD!). Is he a terrorist?

      Most of our children know only the minimal knowledge about the war from what we tell them. Then, our children get recruited to go to war, and they don't know everything about it until they get over there. Even after they get over there, they still don't know everything. I've heard many people who were recruited and went into many of the battles not knowing much about it say, “I'm going into this war to defend the U.S from these Iraqi terrorists. I'm going to kill as many of them as I can.” I They only say it in anger, from not knowing a lot about it, and only knowing what they hear.

      Since most people only hear only one side of the story, they go into a situation as if they were blind, treating others like animals. No matter what we do, we will never be animals. Why do we insist on treating each other like animals when we will never be anywhere near to being an animal? Yes we have similar traits to many animals, but we are not animals. We are all children of God. Whether we choose to believe in God or not we are all created by him. There are so many things that have been going on since the beginning of time to prove that we are. Things like the miracles of people coming out of coma and surviving a horrific car accident that the doctors said they should have never survived.

       Take the universe for example; it's huge. It's bigger than we could ever imagine. The Earth is miniscule compared to the universe. How big are we? We are not even a grain of sand compared to the universe. As humans, we have more cells in our brains than the universe could ever hold. How could that be? How could we hold something bigger than the whole universe, in our brains, when they aren't even a grain of sand compared to the universe? When thought about, there are many reasonable explanations for this. The most reasonable one for most people is that there is a god. God cares about everyone and everything in a lot of people's opinions. He knows where every leaf, blade of grass, and even the tiniest cell on earth are, what they are doing, and how they function. He even knows every single little thought that goes through our brains. No matter how fast, slow, miniscule, or huge a thought may be, he knows.

        It's strange that people can say something that they think is right, such as the examples above, and because they say it so much, it's normal for them to believe it. We have so much proof for many things, yet, we think we have to probe it, test it, and make it so that we can understand it. Why can't we just believe and understand that we will never know everything? Why do we insist on thinking we know everything about someone because they act, dress, and speak a certain way? Why do we insist on judging others? We shouldn't judge because the people who have done wrong, and know they have, will only be able to be judged by God. We can judge all we want, but the final judgment is up to God. Why do we do it?

         It's exactly like the old parable, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." We are the figurative horse. We have to make up our minds, for ourselves, if we drink the water or not. Someone can shove our heads in the water as much as they like, yet, we will eventually drown because we choose not to drink. We are the only people who can make up our own minds. We may have our friends' influences and our consciences, but we still have to make the decision and take the action for ourselves.

     My Aunt Wanda told me this once. She said, "Everyone has choices. Every choice has a consequence. The consequence can be good or bad. We choose to take one action over another, and we must suffer the consequence. We may make the best choice we deem possible, and come out with the worst consequence ever. It’s the other way around too. Again, we are the figurative horse. What we do is up to us, and it's solely our own decision. We only have influence from our creator, by having the little voice inside us that says if what we are doing is wrong or right. That is our conscience. That is our creator. That is God.

       Since we are only humans, we will never know everything about anyone. We will never know exactly what makes anyone the way they are, makes them dress, act, look, or even speak a certain way. Since we will never know everything about anyone certain person, we should not judge them. Why do we do it? We say in the U.S. that everyone is created equal. Why can't we treat each other like we really mean it? The judging should be left up to God and God alone, because everyone will be judged on every tiny, exact detail, of everything they did. If we judge all the time, we will be judged for judging, and we will never have happiness or peace in our lives because we will never be happy with anyone or anything. The reason we do all of this, is only for the simple fact, that we as humans have a need for normalcy.

 

Works Cited

"Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse." Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (2008). Google. GNU

          Free Documentation License, 18 March 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse

Baker P. "Iraqi Man Risks All to Help Free American Soldier."Washingtonpost A01 (2003) Google. Washington Post Foreign Service.

           March 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-

Mount M. "Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says." CNN (2008). Google. CNN, 18 March

           2008http://www.cnn.com/2008/ US/03/13/19a/ed/saddam/