The Struggle for Equality

Equality. Equality is what America boasts, yet it was not given to all citizens until quite recently. It was only about 145 years ago when African Americans got the right to vote, and it has only been a mere century since women finally obtained their right. History has shown that this word is still new to this country along with many important documents and articles. 

Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers fought for freedom in the famous Declaration of Independence. They assert that "all men are created equal" (Jefferson and Founding Fathers), but they intentionally leave out women, slaves, and minorities. If you are representing your whole country, shouldn't you be including the whole population and not just the white males? This completely contradicts the writers' purpose as they claim to want liberty for all when they actually are only giving it to a select few. In the Declaration of Sentiments, Elizabeth Cady Stanton follows the structure of the Declaration of Independence but adds the word "women" at certain points. She believes her argument is valid and fair as it encompasses all of the mistreated women. Stanton preaches that all women "are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" (Stanton). However, slaves and minorities are yet again forgotten from the argument for civil liberties. 

America has come a long way since these two documents. Today, schools are filled with diversity, companies employ without bias to gender, and voting is a right for everyone to enjoy. Equality is something I can enjoy after the countless wars and riots fought during the nation's rocky past. It has allowed me to go to school and see all the different colors of faces and cultures walking around my community. Even though I'm still part of a minority, I feel right at home and that is all I will ever need.

The Tennis Season

I remember Wesley Chiu and I playing matches for almost two and a half hours against every team. It was a tradition for us. We would put our bags down and get our hats out and play long, grueling games as the sky went from blue to dark grey. The rest of the team would sometimes stop by to cheer. There was something normal about it, something ordinary and unsurprising. There were deuces and tiebreakers. The court was laid out in a strict pattern, no bumps and no cracks and no random lines. You knew where to hit the ball. You knew the score. The tennis ball was going back and forth, the opponents right in front of your face, you could watch unorthodox strategies unfolding into chaos. There was always a winner and a loser in the end. There were rules.

I'm sixteen years old, and a junior now, and last year's season has been over for a while now. Much of it is hard to remember. I sit at this MacBook Air and stare through my incomplete blog and watch Howard drop his half-eaten bagel onto the dirty ground, or Vikas Sharma hitting balls into the forest, and as I write about these events, the remembering is turned into a kind of rehappening. Howard screams of unfairness. Vikas Sharma seconds from smashing the ball into the green forest, his face brown and smiling, and then he rockets it into the trees. The comedic stuff never stops happening: it lives in my head, replaying itself over and over.
   
     But the season wasn't all that way.