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Joaquin Moreno

Humanities 1100

Khrystine Kelsey

7 May 2020

My Manifesto

An ideal I have especially after taking this class is being open to new things and

exploring different beliefs, religions and just overall being aware of the world around us. There

are so many different races, cultures, and stories that many of us will live our lives without

knowing. The more aware people are of these differences in the world the less racism and

judgment they’ll have towards other people. That’s what I have experienced personally the more

I learn the more open I’ve become to other people’s lifestyle and their own ideals. I think being

open to other people is always positive. I really value people who are open like this, I have had

many friends come to my house and meet my family and see how we behave and our lifestyle

and they are usually pretty shocked. They always tell me about how close my family is and how

delicious our homemade food is and they absolutely fall in love. I too always love to go to new

friends’ houses and meet their family and see all of the differences we all have. Or just reading

articles about different religions or countries, maybe even watching movies from other places

around the world. It’s a beautiful thing that I think more people, especially today, need. It not

only humbles the person but I think it will make them more sympathetic towards other people. I

really think it will make people have a more positive outlook on life/people.

A social issue that connects with this is and is affected by this is racism and

discrimination. If this ideal of being open-minded was practiced by more people than I believe
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there would be less of this issue. Years ago African Americans were being extremely

discriminated against and were constantly being segregated from the rest. The white people just

didn’t accept them as people like themselves or even as humans. I think we can all agree now

that just isn’t true, we are all human and we deserve to be treated like humans by other humans.

Racism and discrimination aren’t as intense as it was back then when they had slavery but it’s

still apparent with stereotypes and mistreating people. It doesn’t even have to be with race,

nowadays people with different religions, cultures, gender beliefs, political beliefs, etc. are

constantly being mistreated and as if they weren’t humans. In my previous paper to this class, I

talked about the discrimination of transgender people and how they are having employment

issues because of it. Knowing that there are still injustices/issues like these today in the year

2020 is extremely alarming and worrisome. I read a few different articles about people who were

experiencing this kind of behavior from other people and their stories made it sound like they

weren’t being treated as human beings. These people were treating them like some type of alien

for how they express themselves which just isn’t right. Humans should treat other humans as

humans. Despite any strange or unusual features or characteristics.

I believe that if more people informed themselves on these things they aren’t used to,

there wouldn’t be as many judgmental people or be nearly as much discrimination. I too am

sometimes thrown off by something I’ve never seen before. While reading through the section of

the Eastern Perspectives on Faith I explored the religion and culture behind Buddhism and I was

completely amazed by their lifestyle and beliefs. I never knew that it was the fourth biggest

religion in the world and I never knew what they believed in, how they dressed, what some of

their ceremonies are life, etc. By the end of the readings and homework, I was so frustrated with
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myself for not knowing about such a beautiful lifestyle and moral code. I completely fell in love

with their beliefs and how humans cause their own suffering and they are the only ones who can

change it. The video linked in this section states, “For Buddha the way not to suffer is to realize

everything is impermanent, even ourselves”. I powerful way of stripping away one’s ego and in

the long run humbling them. I think it’s a great outlook on life and I now really respect them and

their culture. If I hadn’t taken this class and read those articles and watched the videos I would

have never learned who Buddhists really are. This is why I think it’s imperative for people living

in our modern life today to learn about other people’s cultures. I now after reading that course

material feel much more open to learning and reading about other religions and cultures. I feel as

though the same applies to those people who mistreated the transgender people trying to get

employed for jobs. They are humans just like the rest of us and maybe if the employers had tried

to learn a little more about what it is exactly transgender people are going through and

experiencing they would be more accepting and sympathetic towards those people. In the bigger

picture, this applies to everybody, there is always a story behind every face and a past behind

someone’s behavior.

My ideal of being open-minded and consciously exploring other cultures and beliefs, has

led me to want a change. I hope to soon see a change in our society and how we behave towards

others, I also hope to bring more people’s stories to the surface. In high school, I entered a club

called Latinos In Action that completely changed my life and actually helped me with executing

the change that I want to see in the world. Latinos In Action is an organization that sought out to

empower Latinos in their community and bring their life stories to the surface. Latinos in the

organization wanted to be heard and didn’t want to feel like they were being suppressed any
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longer. The teachers in these clubs give their Latino students lessons on how to be responsible,

career-ready, social/sympathetic, but most important of all, they are taught how to be leaders.

How to take action and be inspiring for the rest of their community. We would go out every class

period and go do service by traveling to an elementary school and helping teachers teach their

students how to read, we would go to senior living homes and bring fun activities to the elderly,

we would go out and cook food for the homeless in downtown, etc. Non-stop service for our

community every single day, we made a name for ourselves (100 hours of service over the

course of 1 school year). My favorite part of being a part of the organization is every few months

we would go to an event at maybe The University of Utah or UVU and listen to each other’s

speeches/stories, watch dances from different cultures of Latinos around the world, and eat food

also from different cultures. Those were some of the most eye-opening events I’ve ever been too.

I grew to have an appreciation for all these different cultures and I felt a desire to help

other people see these too so I stayed in the organization all three years of high school (300 hours

of community service). By the second year I was the secretary of the class, and my senior year I

was the President of the class, I was so proud of everything my class was able to accomplish. I

would help organize these events, create more ways of doing service, and helping others create

presentations to talk about their life stories and what they have all been through. It was a great

experience and I really felt as though I was helping spread my ideal to others around our

community. We were able to express to our community how much we can do for them and how

much they mean for us.

Which is why I hope to rejoin this organization as my manifesto. After my senior year, I,

of course, went to college and I still keep in touch with my classmates but I haven’t joined
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anything like Latinos In Action since, and I really hope to next semester. So I can help show our

community who we are and how we are humans too, so I can help prevent any further

discrimination, racism, and injustices in the future. I will shoot for becoming the president again

and even if I don’t get the role I will still try to give as much input and ideas as I can to help and

teach our community. The more awareness there is of differences, the more appreciative and less

judgemental people will become.

Citations:

Salt Lake Community College. "Eastern Perspectives on Faith Readings Homework"

Introduction to the Humanities Canvas Course. Last modified January 13, 2020.Accessed

May 7, 2020​.

https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/588074/pages/eastern-perspectives-on-faith-readings-

homework?module_item_id=10635036