When was the last time you checked the news and there wasn’t a report of a violent killing due to a difference in race, religion, sexual orientation or beliefs?

That’s exactly the problem with our world today; there is constantly violence between people.  Whether it’s religious groups, countries, terrorist organizations, or just groups of people, they are always fighting each other and in doing so, taking innocent lives.  Why do these groups do what they do and more importantly, how do we, as common people, stop the violence?

The overall problem is that these organizations believe that they are superior and right.  They massacre each other as a show of power, and use killings as a way to scare people into joining their side.  Every day people are hurt, threatened, and even killed simply because according to some person they don’t believe the right thing. These actions are unnecessary and unjustifiable. We all believe in different things... right?

People, because of human nature believe different things and form opinions of topics such as religion, education, and rights.  These beliefs and opinions can create problems when neither side is willing to compromise or accept that there are different opinions out there. No, they don’t have to agree with what the other person thinks, but it would sure go a long way if they agreed to disagree.  When you have a disagreement with a friend, or even a stranger, the typical solution is not violence.  You both explain your side, maybe yell at each other a tad if it gets really heated, but in the end you walk away without hurting anyone.  You don’t blow up their home, shoot them, or murder them because they have a different opinion then you do.  Problems between groups should be handled in peaceful, understanding ways; like we do when we have a disagreement with another person.  Just because it is a larger scale doesn’t mean that it isn’t the same fundamental idea.  These groups take disagreements to a whole new level that makes the news daily. Can we prevent these large scale clashes?

We can try.  Educating people in general about beliefs and cultural differences would be a good start.  One way that this could be done, and is already being done is through museums.  Museums that are dedicated to specific historical events, cultures and religions are a good way to educate and bring about change in people.  These museums should focus on religions, cultures, and historical events that were caused due to a lack of acceptance of differences.  They should also encourage visitors to stop history from repeating its violent tendencies.  By creating these museums, people who go to them should come out having a new understanding of different people as well as compassion for what has happened to them in the past.

A well known historical example of killings based of religion is the Holocaust.  According to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 million jews were killed during the Holocaust.  These innocent people were forced into ghettos, forcibly sent to work camps where millions were worked to death, murdered, or treated poorly due to the fact they were Jewish and believed the wrong thing according to Hitler and his Aryan ideals.  Today, schools teach children about the Holocaust, and there are several museums around the world dedicated to educating the world on what happened.  The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, according to their webiste, www.ushmm.org  is designed to inspire “citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.”  Museums like this one are needed worldwide to stop the hatred between different cultures, religions, people, and beliefs.  The problem with museums is that they only affect the people who go and visit them. 

What about those who don’t?  What about kids?

Children follow what their parents do. Due to this, the history between groups is also a major factor in violence that is based on discrimination.  Issues that, today, have violent actions surrounding them are not just a few years old; they are decades old, and that is part of the problem.  The adults who are in charge are well set in their ways of violence and prejudices, and if anything, history is any indication they are not going to change. Children who grow up with parents who are racist or hate a certain religion are likely to grow up and have those same beliefs and prejudices. So, as children grow up, not knowing any better, they believe the same thing and so the cycle of conflict continues. This has to change for the violent tendencies of groups to change. How can we change childrens outlook on different beliefs?  Could we do it through education??

Schools typically don’t teach about differences in religion, race, and cultures. But what if they did?  By teaching classes to young students, we can have a chance at installing a sense of compassion and acceptance into todays youth.  Schools should teach units, if not entire subjects on different religions, not catering to any specific ones, but instead to the underlying point of accepting that people have different beliefs.  Many times as children grow up, they only know their own way of thinking. What does this lead to? As adults, these children fall into their ancestors’ violent footsteps.  Therefore, by teaching them the ways of different cultures and beliefs, we can hope to bring a sort of understanding.  From the basis of understanding, we can hope to bring peace to the violence based off of discrimination.  Is it worth it to try and bring peace to the violence that surrounds the world today?

Yes.

Work Cited

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, n.d.
Web. 06 Sept. 2014. .