Peaceful People

          Peace and equality are two social issues that many seem to ignore or forget about. Everyday discrimination is going on in this world and few are doing anything to stop it. Government officials are even discriminatory and do no not promote the peace and equality this country is supposed. Although I live in one of the most diverse cities in the world, New York, there are still many acts of inequality. This discrimination leads to violence which ruptures the peace held so well in the United States. While other countries do not have people who are as peaceful and equal, peace and equality are everywhere. Little things that people do like helping a neighbor or stopping a fight between children are peace. Making sure your friend who looks "weird" because of his accent is equality. These two things have been recently popping up in my independent reading life lately and I have closely observed peace and equality in books. There hasn't been much of either.

          Peace and Equality are very rare in the books I have been reading lately. For example in Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini there is a special system that gives people who apply themselves to it social power. It makes those kids cooler and a girl (or boy) magnet. Although this is great for who ever uses the system, those who don't will eventually be nobodies. This is a display of inequality which may even lead to disruption. Books like this are very educating in issues of peace and equality yet they do not teach how to maintain those things. In the book Witch Hunt by Marc Aronson, those who are convicted of being witches just happened to be those in the town who were disliked. Now as it turned out there were no real witches at all, but in that time period they were believed in. What does not make sense is that judges so strongly believed that these town outcasts were witches. This is unjust and unequal. In World War Z by Max Brooks, citizens are left behind and left out to face the zombies while important people from government and famous people are protected and carried away unharmed. Many plans like this have gone in the book where those with more power get more. The peacefulness of countries of did this in the book completely disappeared. Overall, in books I am reading, peace and equality are barely visible and this does not give those who are reading these books good ideas to carry. 

          My independent reading life has shown me a bit more about peace and equality then I knew in the past. Now I realize that maintaining these two social issues is much harder than I expected it to be. I know that I must act in order to make sure that Brooklyn's peace and equality are kept stable.