People Need to be Treated With Respect
Everyone needs and deserves respect. Respect is a basic human need. We all crave respect and we all should give respect. The Golden rule, Due unto others as you would have done unto you, is perfect example of respect. This famous saying means treat others as you would want to be treated. Or in other words respect everyone.
In this paper the importance of treating people with respect no matter what their situation in life might be, will be discussed. This will be done with examples from the book Flowers for Algernon, the book Born to Run, The movie Forest Gump, my own life experience and a sample from history.
Flowers for Algernon is a great book. There is a man in this story who is mentally challenged. He has an IQ of 68 and does not understand many people. His name is Charlie Gordon; he lives in New York City and works at a place called Donner’s Bakery. Joe, Frank and George are some men that work with him. They belittled Charlie every chance they could get. An expression they often say is “hey look at Joe, Frank or George, really pulled a Charlie Gordon” (Keyes pg.354). They say many mean things like that about Charlie all of the time. They used Charlie as reference for most of their jokes. These men were not the brightest, but they are smarter than Charlie. They feel that because they were smarter than Charlie that they have the right to pick on him. Joe, Frank and George often took advantage of Charlie by making him do stupid things he did not understand (Keyes, 2010).
“Everybody laughed and we had a good time… they gave me lots of drinks and Joe said Charlie is a card when he’s potted… Every body likes me” (Keyes pg. 356). This phrase from the book shows that Joe, Frank and George and possibly others have no respect or sympathy for Charlie. Charlie does not realize this. He thinks they are his friends. He does not realize that he is their entertainment not their friend (Keyes, 2010).
Children, teens and adults need to look out for people that are not being respected and stop anyone who makes fun of, or bully’s them. Charlie Gordon is a great example of someone not being shown respect. People need to learn to show respect for everyone even if they have a low I.Q.
In the book Born to Run, great examples of respecting people are shown during the fifty mile race in Copper Canyon. Throughout the race people cheer on the competitors and give them encouraging words of praise. The runners themselves show great acts of respect to each other.
An example of respect from the book is when the writer of the book Christopher McDougall gives Barefoot Ted his last bottle of water when Ted was completely out. “Here, I said, offering the last of my water. I had not any idea why he hadn’t just gone back to the aid station and refilled if he was so worried, but I was to exhausted to ask any questions” (McDougall, 2009, p. 270). Christopher McDougall showed respect to Barefoot Ted by giving him the last of his water. He also encouraged him to keep on running and to be his best.

Another example of respect shown in the Born to Run book is after the race is over. It is at the end of the great race when the famous Scott Juric barely lost to Arnulfo. “Scott wasn’t used to losing, especially not to some no-name guy in a pickup race in the middle of nowhere. This had never happened to him before—but he knew what to do about it…..
Scott walked up to Arnulfo and bowed” (McDougall, 2009, p. 271).
Scott could have been mad and upset at this moment but instead he showed great respect to the man who deserved it most. Scott did not care about the color of his skin, where he came from or what job or education he had. He just knew that this man deserved respect for being the best runner in the race. This was the best moment in the book. It summed up the importance of respecting everyone and having the courage to do it.
The movie Forest Gump has many examples of people not respecting and respecting each other. The main character Forest Gump is not shown very much respect through most of his life. He gets made fun of throughout the movie because he is not very smart. A good example of Forest not being respected in the movie is when Forest is running down the road and he is being chased by some boys in a truck. The boys are yelling at him and teasing him for not being very smart. Another example of Forest not being shown respect is when he runs across the football field and the football coach asks “Who is that”? And the other coach responds by saying that “he is town idiot”. The coaches didn’t respect him but they wanted him on their team because he could run very fast (Zemeckis, 1994).

Jenny is often not showed respect in the movie. One example was when it was implied that her father abused her when she was a child. Another example is when one of her boyfriends in the movie hit her and talked rude to her and another example is when she did not show respect for herself when she took drugs and worked as stripper (Zemeckis, 1994).

Forest Gump was a good example of showing respect to others. He always treated others with respect. He treated Lieutenant Dan, Bubba, his Mom and Jenny with great respect. He showed most people he came in contact with respect. Because Forest treated people with respect his life kept turning out good for him. His kindness and respect came back to him. Lieutenant Dan became his friend and invested his money which made him rich, and Jenny finally got married to him and he got to raise his son (Zemeckis, 1994).
In life you sometimes run into odd looking or just weird different people. Some people like to point them out to their friends and make fun of them. They do not show the different people any respect. I see this at school a lot. I believe kids feel stronger and cooler when they are picking on the odd kid. The kid that is being picked on, knows nobody likes him so he tries desperately to get them to like him. Often this behavior causes him to make even more of a fool of himself.
There’s a kid in my school that many kids pick on. He can be annoying sometimes and say and do stupid things to get attention. He’s not athletic, not smart and has a troubled family life. I try my best to stand up for him and be his friend. He is actually a really nice kid. He often sits by me at lunch. People who were sitting by me often leave the table when he sits down. I can’t imagine how hurt and foolish he must feel. I stand strong and say encouraging things to him, try to make him feel better. He always smiles to me and says thanks buddy and gives me a pat on the back.
My friendship with him is sometimes a struggle. It is hard when he walks up to you and your friends and they say a mean comment then walk away. I’m left there with him feeling a little embarrassed. I used to worry that other kids will not want to be friends with me because I stick up for him. But I do not worry anymore. I figure if they do not want to be friends with me because I am nice to this kid then I do not want to be friends with them.
People should be nice and respectful of everyone. If people look different or act different we should get to know them and find out why. They might be really interesting people or someone who needs a friend.

History is full of examples of people treating each other with respect and people not treating each other with respect. I have chosen the example from history of Fredrick Douglas and how he fought for the blacks to be freed from slavery.
Slavery is one the best examples of not respecting people. Forcing people to do what you want them to do without any form of compensation does not show respect. Force is never a sign of respect. Fredrick Douglas fought for the slaves to be freed. He wanted the black people to be treated as equals and get the respect they deserved (People and Events, 2010).
Abraham Lincoln showed respect for Fredrick Douglas. At first Abraham Lincoln was afraid to publicly show respect for Fredrick Douglas for fear of public disapproval. After the civil war and his re-election, President Lincoln tried to show Fredrick Douglas the respect he deserved and invited him to the White House and treated him like a guest of honor (People and Events, 2010).
People need to be treated with kindness and respect no matter what their station in life. The examples from Flowers for Algernon, Born to Run, Forest Gump, my life and history, talked about in this paper have shown the importance of the need for respect for everyone. Treating others how you want to be treated is truly the golden rule. I hope everyone will eventually learn to follow this rule.



Works Cited

Keyes, D. (2010). Flowers for Algeron. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
McDougall, C. (2009). Born to Run. New York: Random House.
People and Events. (2010, November Thursday). Retrieved 11 11, 10, from PBS.org: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1539.html
Zemeckis, R. (Director). (1994). Forrest Gump [Motion Picture].