Have you ever had someone look at you strangely and known exactly why? Have you ever done the same to someone else? Maybe someone who looked differently, dressed differently, spoke differently? The answer is yes, we all have, for some unexplainable reason, as a whole, we feel the need to carry on with the two year old mentality that everything and everyone needs a label. For some of us it's just the way we are, the way our minds work, and for others, that's just the way it is. There is no reason, well at least no logical reason. Must we continue to follow our two year old mentality where everything needs a label like crayons in a crayon box? We are human beings. Not the special purple crayon, not the blue crayon, not the virtually useless white crayon, we are people.

Does it really matter if someone dresses a certain way, or looks a certain way? In today's pop culture one may find shows such as "what not to wear". A show that tells young women what is "in style", during this show the two hosts proceed to mock the individual's clothing choice and throw much of it away, giving them an "approved" wardrobe. I do not believe in ever forcibly shaping another individual into what society and the media wishes for us to be. More importantly I do not believe in labels. Now I know a lot of people are going to think, it's just a show, it's not that big of a deal, but it is. These kinds of shows tell it's viewers how to dress and that people wont accept you unless you look fashionably "acceptable".

Throughout the Earth's history there has always been a group, or minority which was the "trend" to pick on. The most obvious of these would be racism, in particular against the African American community, and the persecution of the Jews during WW2. However, there have also been many other forms of discrimination throughout history, which although perhaps not as extreme, equally wrong. Such discrimination has been pitched against homosexuals, causing many young homosexual teens to kill themselves, in the belief that something is wrong with them or that they will never be loved. Such an example could be made of my own cousin Jinky, a senior in high school, and an honor student, once out of the closet so to speak she was bullied by both her family and her peers at school for being a lesbian until one day she decided to hang herself from a banister in her dark, damp garage. She left us with nothing more than a pathetic, quickly written "I'm sorry". At the funeral some of her "friends" came to offer their condolences, but a sorry was not going to bring my beautiful 18 year old cousin back.

Among these wrongly victimized groups include religious groups, more recently, the Muslim community, many uneducated people across the nation and planet have now begun to believe that Muslim is a violent and hateful religion. This is not only implied in today's media but also taught in places such as my church, Lancaster Baptist. The members of this community are so stubborn and ardent in their beliefs that they do not stop to re asses the argument by doing actual research on the opponent's argument. Because had they done actual research they would have known that Muslim as a religion is not a violent religion but that extremism for any cause and any religion, is violent, cruel and improperly justified through that religion's true beliefs. Many people, many once again from my church, also believe that if one dresses in dark colors, that they are depressed, worshiping the devil, or are "misled" by the world.

What compels us to judge our fellow human beings, is it a lack of morals, a desire to feel better than others? A need to fit in to feel stability? Whatever the reason, we as a whole have done a fantastic job of making colossal fools of ourselves because of our tendencies towards blatant discrimination. Whether it be against differently colored people, homosexuals, different religious groups, different fashion styles, or even against people of a different body type, we discriminate, tease, judge, and label. These labels should not be what rule our society. These mocking words should not be aloud to enter our minds as a truth. I lost a cousin because a big enough group of people, close to her, believed it was alright to tease someone about their differences, and because uneducated, closed minded people believed that she was strange and disgusting. "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."Matthew 7:12. A true christian lives by these words and any truly intelligent and rational beings already know this.