What Would A Prejudice Free, Highly Respectful Community Look Like?
By Ariel Miller
When I think of what a prejudice free, highly respectful community would look like, I start with me. I am going to help my community by treating everyone fairly. When I am in Downtown Kirkwood at McDonalds, I usually yell and talk loud with my friends. I realize I need to be quiet so everyone can enjoy their meals. When I am at Kirkwood High School sport games, I am going to try not to distract the teams by saying "boo" and "shot". I am going to be the best I can be but what about others. If our community was prejudice free and highly respectful, we wouldn’t have shootings and we wouldn’t have fights amongst ourselves. When I am in Kirkwood, I think the police officers see a black boy sagging, and they assume he has done something bad like robbing a bank. When they see a white boy sagging, they simply tell him to pull up his pants. Once there was fight between kids from Nipher and kids from St. Peters (public vs Catholic). The police were all over Downtown Kirkwood, but they did not break it up. The kids just ran and hid. Would this be the same in Meacham Park? Things are different for blacks and whites. I do not think people should judge others by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, as Dr. King said. If we want change in the world, we must be the change we wish to see. I believe kids my age (12 & 13) should go out and do something in the community. This will help kids stay involved and not get into drugs and gangs. When I am not busy, I am going to go to Meacham Park and volunteer in the community. I can volunteer to do work with people who are homeless in the city. This is no different from when I was younger and I would rake leaves at my grandmother’s house for free to help her. Of course, she always gave me money anyways but then I was able to go out and get something nice for her. I was helping someone who needed help. I wish Kirkwood was a prejudice free, highly respectful community because everyone would be treated well and no one would feel left out. Everyone would feel like they belong in the community. Let’s take school for example. Many African Americans sit together at lunch and whites sit together. Black and white are expected to be in different cliques. The problem is I am an African American girl and I sit with all white students; I feel like I am in the right spot. I do not have a problem sitting with people of another race because they are my friends. No one has the right to change that. We are all human; we breathe the same air. In order to have a prejudice free, highly respectful community, I am going to try to be a leader by caring about others and helping when I can. I want to treat everyone the way I want to be treated. I want to make sure that everyone looks at Kirkwood as a place to call home.