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Survivng the atrocities we have inflicted upon each other and pulling through a Civl War, a civil rights movement, and continueing movements towards equality of the sexes, the classes, the races, sexual orientation, and other aspects of the human beings that make up this society has causes us only to grow stronger. Through every trial overcome, and every wrong admitted and tried to make right, we have tried to heal old wounds instead of holding grudged for generations. For every step in the wrong direction we have taken two in the right, moving ever forward through every storm. Though at times we have made a point of trying to smother the cultures of the minority, we have an ideal where each respects the other and the opinions of the other. My grandmother can still be known to think of others as inferior because they are different, to sterotype without knowing although surely not to the extent as her parents or event ot he extent of herself forty years ago. My father often thinks more in the way of this ideal our country stands for, but still is reluctant to actively himslef or have his children violate the old inhumane and nonsensical attitudes of earlier America not because he thinks there is anything wrong with interracial couples, homosexuality or bisexuality, or anythings else, but merely because he does not want his family to have to deal with a society that can still at times be hostile towards what is different. Here is my generation. The last of generation X. We are the children of guns and violence and spontaneous random violence. We are the children of drugs and illegal drinking. We are the children of gratuitous and dangerous sex. This is my generation. This is also the generation of acceptance. Not only do we accept others who are different, but we accept our own difference. We not only see the wrongs of the past, but face the future with honesty not only in our treatment of others, but in treatment of ourselves. |
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