Kyle Roberts

Laura Knudson
UWRT 1101
3/27/16

Reading Response 4
Close your eyes. Imagine a place where equal opportunity for all despite race gender or
appearance truly existed and everyone cared for one other and believed in a united and
prosperous nation, eliminating prejudice and accepting differences because drawing lines
between people would slow down and or hamper progress. Now imagine a place where everyone
is divided and the hate keeping everyone apart is powerful enough to fuel a political campaign.
Supporting and embracing ones own ideas becomes less important than criticizing someone
elses. Judgement is favorable to kindness, and greed overcomes generosity. Which one sounds
more realistic?
My generation suffers from an infectious social disorder known as civil inattentiveness.
Every day I walk on campus at different times of the day and hundreds of different people pass
me by, many without so much as a glance while still acknowledging my existence. As if an
outgoing atmosphere with more of an actively social body of students could be viewed as a bad
thing. It is still more or less deemed unnecessary as you wont typically see people actively going
out of their way for strangers. Even as social life blooms on campus later in the day it still
exemplifies how groups set themselves apart from one another, perhaps without intending to do
so. Groups and cliques rejoice, ironically, in the individuality of their similarities. It further
supports the idea of people commonly finding comfort in conforming to a group to feel like a
part of something.
Now of course the perspective of one student in a University of almost forty-thousand
students, does not represent a reflection of a national average by any means. However, what this
does insist is a trend. Whos to say this isnt common amongst a large portion of universities

Kyle Roberts
Laura Knudson
UWRT 1101
3/27/16

across the nation? Whos to say it isnt a fluke? My story and my circumstances are not likely to
apply to the average student or perhaps those that are part of a large friend group or club, who
will see campus in a different light. And maybe given time to observe the environment itself
those people may have similar views or even conflicting ones, but their own developed view
nonetheless. Already being under the impression of whatever group may obstruct the bigger
picture to them. People go on without realizing the effect of their actions in its entirety.
Differences discourage where they should encourage the masses to embrace the diversity that
makes up our population. Opportunity for unity and national progress concerning acceptance
presents itself and instead of taking advantage we opt to let differences prevail and serve as
barriers between us.
What happened? When did it become more important for people to undermine and
belittle each others beliefs instead of promoting and embracing their own? Power and greed has
found a home in todays world. It has all but consumed the population only further separating us
from our humanity and implying the notion that everything, people included, have a price.
Whether it be a literal numerical value that someone was to place on anothers life or the mere
idea that no matter how strongly a person feels he/she can be bought out, and thus corrupted,
despite beliefs. People become just numbers, and or whatever labels the powerful deem
appropriate as long as the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. Instead of uniting and prospering
together weve adopted the popular belief that every man is for himself. These invisible
structures and boarders within society only separate us. Prevent us from coexisting and growing
like we should. It cant always just be about the wealth, the status, or the power.
Its time. Time for everyone to open their eyes wide and realize that the road to the utopia
this country wishes to be is not paved with hatred, but with love. Acceptance and tolerance will

Kyle Roberts
Laura Knudson
UWRT 1101
3/27/16

bring us closer to each other. Greed and envy will only tear us apart and cling us to our
possessions. This is a crazy time in history with a lot of ifs and large amounts of power at stake
and many different views are being expressed. Sensitivity is high and radical retaliation is no
longer uncommon. The last thing we as people should be concerned with is possessions,
especially when theyre looked at ahead of people. Its time to paint over the green this country
has been coated by. Its time for change.