I thought that I should touch on the subject of respect. By that, I mean respecting other people, as in, treating other people with dignity and humanity. Even more simply, I think you can boil that down to treating other people the way that you want to be treated. I think that most of us would like to hope that in our current day and age, people are becoming kinder to one another. Unfortunately, that is not so. In actuality, people still mistreating some of the same groups that have always been mistreated, whether that be sexism or racism, have not gone away. It should be noted though that there are laws to protect people from being discriminated against for such things as their biological sex or their color.

Something that has been appalling to me though is a law that was brought to my attention.

In case you haven't heard of this, I will give you some background.

The city of Charlotte in the state of North Carolina passed some measures to protect persons of different sexual orientations as well as transgender persons against discrimination. These measures were set to take effect on April 1, 2016. Before they could be put fully into effect, though, the state of North Carolina super-ceded any possible measures that would have protected people from discrimination based on being transgender or based on sexual orientation. To be clear, North Carolina blocked measures that were being taken to protect people from discrimination. Essentially, they have now made it in line with the law to refuse service to people based on sexual orientation or based on someone being transgender. North Carolina's General Assembly wasn't even supposed to have a session until the end of April but they called a special session so they could squash Charlotte's plans to protect more people before it could take effect.

I would hope that you find that as appalling as I do.

I've read some opinions on the issue about how N.C. has the right to govern their state as they please, and about how it is sort of a backwards religious freedom issue, if the people in N.C. claim it to be against their religion to serve gay and transgender people, that should be their right.

I simply find this reasoning to be morally wrong. First of all, religious people do not make up 100 percent of people in any state in the USA. So, passing laws that allow discrimination against certain groups of people because it supposedly reflects the views of most people is simply unfair. Second of all, if you want to hide behind the guise of religious freedom as your reason for discriminating against people you don't like or who make you uncomfortable, either you are a coward, you need a new religion, or both. If your religion tells you to look down on whole groups of people and to treat them like scum, you're living your life the wrong way. It's about time we all recognize each person in this world, no matter if you happen to "like" the way they carry on in life or not and no matter how "conservative" you claim to be, as a human with feelings who deserves genuine kindness and respect.

A lot of people in this world are still working on that, but I hope you would realize that it's not only wrong to perpetuate discrimination, but it is not right to tolerate discrimination either.