Have you ever made fun of somebody for the way that they look or the way that they act? Or been mocked for the way that you look? Or maybe you've been picked on for trying to support someone that was being bullied. This is something that many people go through nowadays and most never mention it due to the added negative attention that it would bring.

Something similar happened around me when I was in grade 8 to an autistic student in my class.  He was very simple mentally and just wanted to fit in and have friends. Several classmates in my class would take advantage of this to call him terrible names, hit him and do all sorts of mean and shameful things. You would think that people would have stood up for him; but no, no one ever stood up against the cruel treatment of him. Then one day i thought that they crossed the line with what they were doing to him. They had been hitting him repeatedly in the face and then trying to play it off as a game so that he would continue to let them do it.

So I stood up and got between them and said that they had had their fun and that it was time to leave him alone. Their reaction? What would you expect that it would be? That they would back off and leave him alone? No, instead they just picked at me for trying to stand up for him. “Look at Ross, he wants to be a tard too!"

This is the problem. People don't want to stand up for those that are discriminated against because they are worried about how they will be treated or viewed when they do.  They fear that they too will become discriminated against. People fear that others will shut them out and ostracize them for their compassion. The community is broken.

We must push past this fear and stand up for the people around us. Because no matter what their difference from you is whether it be their race, their gender, or their intelligence it is of utmost importance to realize that THEY ARE HUMAN TOO. It isn’t right or logical for that matter that we put them down for things that make them different. Just because one person is different does not mean that they are any less. We should celebrate our differences, because they are what makes it possible for us to continue advancing as a race.

We need to become a strong and united community free from discrimination. Think about it. Imagine a future where people, nay nations, would work together for the greater good of humanity without discrimination? Without judging someone on their race, gender, or intelligence? A future where differences are embraced and people would be viewed equally, creating a strong flourishing community with a future of stronger people.

What I ask of you today is that you look at the people around you, for there are people here from all corners of the world and ask yourself how are they any different from me? How am i different from them? Hopefully you will answer that you aren't and that you are all very similar instead of being vastly different.