Person of Character

Hi Everyone!

I have some AMAZING news to share with you all! I am SOOOOO excited, I can barely contain it! He-he.

Well as you all know, I am getting closer and closer to graduation every minute! Well this week I had an Award Ceremony for the graduating students who are receiving awards, scholarships and other recognitions. Well I was told by my old Junior English teacher that she had nominated me for ‘A Person of Character’ award. I figured that since they only picked one girl and one boy out of the whole senior class, I wouldn’t get it. Well I was invited to the award ceremony where they gave me the ‘A Person of Character’ award! Dr. Courson, our principal said this before announcing my name; “They believe in the inherent dignity of all people and treat everyone with respect even those whose ideas & ideologies evoke strong disagreement. They have a strong sense of right and wrong and have the courage and willpower to do the right thing even when it is unpleasant, costly or goes against what others are doing.” I am truly honored to be given this award. It means so very much to me.

Yesterday I got called down to the College and Carreer Center at our school. It is place you go for information on colleges, scholarships, volunteering programs etc. The lady there told me that along with that award I got a scholarship! The honor of being recognized as a kind and caring person was AMAZING to begin with, but then to find out I got a scholarship to help pay for college made me almost cry! The moment I got into the car that day I told my mom and she had me call dad right away! I can barely contain how happy I am for this wonderful gift that I have been given!

My sister Regan called me later that night to congratulate me. I told her though that it wasn’t all my doing. I have had some wonderful teachers. My mom and my dad from a young age have taught me about acceptance, being kind, understanding and loving towards all people. I would not be the same person I am today without the guidance of my family. My mom and dad instilled in me the values of love and acceptance. I would still try to be as kind and understanding as I could be and stand up for what I believe in, even if I did not get an award; because that is the right thing to do and that was how I was raised. My mom always says “You do something nice because it is nice, not so you can get recognized for it.” So to all of you who are fighting the good fight, don’t give up just because you think no one recognizes your efforts. I do. And the people you positively impact in your everyday life do. We are making a difference, award or no award.

Love,

Becca

Below is a video that my mom took while I got my award!

The Word Retard

Hi Everyone, I just got off of the phone with a friend that I have known since first grade, we will call him Fred. We started to debate politics (bad idea, I know.) and my friend made it clear that he does not agree with Obama. He explained to me: "Obama decided that he would just start printing out more money, which doesn't help our economy; instead it just makes things worse because it brings down the value of the dollar. Did he not take econ? Is he retarded?"

While we had been debating a while on the health care bill, and I explained to him that he has no idea what its like to be sick and not be able to get the necessary medications needed in order to even live; let alone be able to work. My friend, I believe came to some realization about the health care system and how it does need something to be done (we just disagree on ways to get there.). When I kindly asked him not to use the word retard, he refused to see my reasoning behind it.

"The word retard means to be slow or slow down. So if I say 'I'm retarding my car.' it does not mean it in a mean way." He explained to me, in which I replied.
"Correct, but you and the rest of society don't use the word retard in that sense. You use it in the sense of dumb, stupid, moronic and idiotic which all have a negative connotation, therefor the word retard has a negative meaning and is hurtful."
"But Becca, I didn't mean it in a bad. I was simply asking if he was retarded."
"You could've said 'Does he have a learning disability? Is he mentally handicapped?'" I tried to explain to my friend. "If you were to take out the word retard and replace it with another word, what word would you have used?"
"Stupid."
"My point exactly." I explained to Fred softly.
"But its not a bad word. The meaning behind a word makes the word bad." Fred said to me.
"Would you use the 'N-Word' Or chink? What about faggot?" I asked him (Excuse my language and I mean no offense by what I said.). "The word nigger was actually based off of where the person was from." My friend tried to trip me up.
(Not sure if he was correct about the fact he presented, I decided that for arguments sake and incase he was right, I would go with it.) "Alright, but then the connotation was changed to be a degrading and racist one. So, do you use that word?" I asked him once more.
"No."
"Exact same reason you shouldn't use the word retard. While the origin of the word may not have been offensive in the beginning, it is now offensive and demeaning." I told my friend. I then said to him after a few moments of silence; "Fred, I know that you are a kind, caring, loving and accepting human being; I just want your words to reflect the type of person I know that you are."

Fred didn't say much after that, except that he thinks America has bigger and more important problems than the connotation behind words. And while I agree that there are life and death matters that are going on at this very moment, I explained to him that people can multi-task. We can help get the country back on it's feet while being loving, kind and accepting towards those who are different.