Differences – From Us To Them

The Moon and the Sun

The moon and The sun work as a cycle

One sets as the other one rises

How it feels to be an outcast

One walks as the other one runs

My moon is seen as an outcast

But they work as a cycle

Bigots like Donald Trump

Treat them like they’re recyclable

Here’s this little piece of paper

We make up whether or not you are

Coherent and able

Kind of like cutting off your legs just to see if you’re capable

You strip a little piece of dignity

From the small number of people who have any clarity

You pour a little price into curiosity

Slap a name on it for the people who live within the causal luminosity

They say to be one with others

But how do we coexist without having the same Mother

The moon and the son

They rotate like two linear buns

The universe spins on the same frequency

Even if we don’t speak the same currency

If you bounce the moon off it’s timeline

Is the sun sitting there waiting to see if the time’s right?

One sets as the other one rises

Its all about how they handle each other’s vices

You have one language that’s just sugar and spices

And one language that’s all high rises

That’s how it feels to be an outcast

“All things in this world die”

According to someone who claims that they don’t hide

Shifting paths, living in masks

Do you walk or do you run?

Are you the moon or are you the sun?

Artist Rendition:

http://getdrawings.com/sun-moon-drawing — Author unknown, illustration of the moon and sun, downloaded on April 1, 2019, All rights reserved.

My narrative poem addressed some things from my point of view which is looking into a window through L’s point of view. The first stanza starts off with the moon and sun comparison. This is a big theme that ties the entire piece together. I talked about how one (the moon/sun) sets while the other one rises. The moon and sun are constantly on their own wavelength, rotation, time, and speed. They’re working together as a team but they’re also their own individual energy source. To try and make more sense of this we must give a little background on the person in interest. During my interview with L, they gave me insight into some of the struggles they had to deal with on the daily due to the lack of documentation their parents have. They are considered “aliens” according to the government and the laws held within this country. The moon and sun comparison has multiple ties into it but the main one is that the moon represents the minorities while the sun represents the government and/or upper class. Undocumented people are “outcasts.” In the interview, L states that “there [were] actually a couple situations where [their] parent [was] uhm— they weren’t embarrassed but they, they were treated less than a human”(1:51). My last line in my first stanza states “one walks as the other one runs” in correlation to the idea of the moon and sun being two different kinds of people. Imagine yourself in a situation like the rabbit and the tortoise. Who runs and who walks? That is kind of the concept I am trying to portray. Do you eat or do you stave?

In the second stanza, you can see the input of my personal opinion. I start off talking about the moon being an outcast and then I continue with the “cycle” aspect of the theme. In a sense, the government and everybody else has to work In a cycle in order to coexist and function in the same society. “Bigots like Donald Trump, treat them like they’re recyclable.” I assumed my audience has a slight comprehension of what is going on concerning our current president and the status of his demands for this country. The laws and newly founded apprehensions regarding undocumented people have really stunted the thought process for the hope of all humanity. They are being treated like they are “recyclable.” In stanza three, I talk about the “piece of paper” and how “we make up whether or not you are coherent and able.” The piece of paper is the document (s) that L’s parents do not have, the tangible and physical recycled broken-down piece of wood that determines their entire status and quality of life in this country. I compare this to “cutting off your legs, just to see if you’re capable” in kind of a sarcastic but ironic kind of light. In the interview, L talks about his parent’s most recent struggle. Their mom had just recently gotten into a car accident, trying to get the car fixed and the insurance companies to comply with the financial struggles of having to hire a lawyer. All of that can be taxing but even more taxing on someone who is illegally living in this country. Simple things are harder to obtain. The sun is the center of the universe, it has multiple energy forms relying on its energy and resources in order to function. It’s just like modern day society, the government is in control of everything, the center of attention, meanwhile, the moon, (the minorities, the outcasts, the “aliens”) is in the back pulling most of the weight getting little to no credit and is usually ridiculed along the way. The people of the moon live humbly for things that don’t come easy to them.

In the next stanza, I focus even deeper on the topic by talking about the restricting “Freedom” Americans claims we have a right to—”you strip a little piece of dignity” (taking away simple rights based off status of citizenship) “for the people who have clarity” (clarity in the sense of having a different sense of mind due to the difference in struggles and experiences people with documents versus people who don’t have documents have to go through (each person’s definition of “clarity” may or may not differ). “Slap a name on it for people who live within the casual luminosity” (to bring attention to how we, as a society, tend to label people or put them into certain boxes. People who are just waking up every day in the journey of finding a purpose to carry out until they die. Casual luminosity. Casual everyday living auras. Living light. In the interview, L states that they like to “go out with [their] cousins, a lot,” and “that’s one of the most enjoyable things [they] do” (11:55). I invert this into stanza five, line two by comparing L’s joy in hanging out with his cousins to a much deeper and more rooted problem. How does society and humanity coexist as one without having the same “Mother.” Mother in the sense of “all things greater than me.” How do people overcome fear, hatred, and differences if we won’t all first identify as being all the same? All equal? All following and breathing for the same purpose of enjoying and fulfilling our lives until we eventually die?

In stanza six, I state that the “universe spins on the same frequency, even if we don’t speak the same currency.” In saying this, I try to illustrate a picture, a visual so my audience can depict the kind of angle I am trying to portray. In the interview with L, they state that they had struggled with reading for a long time, even in kindergarten they would still struggle more than their peers. In my poem, I compare language to currency, that even though there are a lot of people who speak many different languages, it does not suggest that we are any better than the next. It is simply a currency we have; we get to use it whenever and however we want all the while reaping the benefits of being able to communicate with one another. If we strip away someone’s right to speech or degrade someone for not being fluent in one language or the other, we deny someone’s right to currency, we deny them a rite of passage. Stanza seven hits L’s struggles with stereotypes placed upon them and their family. In the interview they state that people have “tried to get my dad into selling drugs and all of that but he always said no and now I have one uncle that is here and the rest— some are incarcerated, some are in other states and some are in Mexico because of deportation” (1:51). I use this to incorporate “it’s all about how they handle each other’s vices, you have one language that’s just sugar and spices and one language that’s all high rises” by using their story and struggle with problems with their family member’s and drugs and compare it to the way that society has to share each other’s experiences and “vices” in order come to a point of total unanimous acceptance.

Author Unknown, content containing peace propaganda, downloaded on April 6th, 2019, All rights reserved.

In the second to last stanza, I incorporated a direct quote from L themselves, “All things in this world die.” In the interview, I ask L if there is a specific or special quote he relates too and that is the first part of the quote. I find this to be the main anchor to this entire narrative poem. We all live, we all breathe, and we all die. The reason for any kind of discrimination of someone else due to their ethnic, sexual, or religious belief is pointless. If we all breathe, we all die. If we all die, what makes one person better than the next? L had a different childhood because of the struggles and battles their parents had to deal with. Although a burden at times, L takes all of this in a very warm-hearted light, they take these struggles and turn them into lessons. I state at the very end; “Do you walk, or do you run? Are you the moon or are you the sun?” Ultimately, no matter what you decide to be, you must remember that the moon is merely a reflection of the sun. We all walk and we all eventually run. It’s simply a cycle, and that cycle is called life.

A Day in The Life of Margaret Phillips

Kelly Pingeton, Portrait of Maggie Phillips in her senior year of high school, 2018, All rights reserved.

I am a Freshman at UMKC. One day, we were told we had to interview someone who was different than ourself. The difference could be several different things including race, religion, etc. I instantly thought about my friend Margaret, who I call Maggie. We are very close, however, she is different than me in many ways. I chose Maggie not only because she is my friend, but because I admire everything about her. She is easily one of the strongest people I know, despite not being what everyone expects her to be. During our interview, I asked Maggie to tell a little bit about herself, “My name is Margaret Phillips [gestures toward self] and I was adopted from China when I was 11 months old uh—I grew up in a small town called Braymer, Missouri. Umm—I have four older brothers and my mom. My dad passed away when I was 13” (00:07). As the interview went on, I learned things about Maggie I had not known before including her love for sports. “Yes—with the sports I played which were softball, basketball, and track I kinda felt like the underdog” (08:23). Now anyone who doesn’t know Maggie personally might be wondering why she feels like, as she says, an underdog compared to her teammates. “They wouldn’t expect someone who looks like me to be very good at all, but it was nice because then I could show everyone how good I was they would be like “what?” and oh yeah it doesn’t help at all that I’m only 5 feet tall [smiles]” (08:40). I asked Maggie to describe herself a little more for those who don’t know her and she said, “Yeah, I’m 5’1” and Asian and very much a tomboy.”

After interviewing Maggie, I realized the struggles she has to go through in everyday life. This only made me admire her more. While interviewing Maggie, it was clear to me that she could rise above the looks, whispers, and judgments of those around her. Eventually, I had to ask her, “Were there any times you have ever wished you could change specifically just the way you look?” and not surprisingly, she answered, “No.” In a later question, I asked if she ever considered what her life would be like if she didn’t have her difference. Maggie made it very clear that she has thought about things like this before because, who hasn’t? At the end of the day, she very much loves her life. It is clear to me that what other people, including myself, may see as struggles, Maggie only sees these obstacles as learning and growing experiences. Throughout the interview I wanted to get some personal experiences from Maggie, to see the world through her eyes. So, I asked, “…can you describe a specific incident where you felt out of place or different because of your difference?” (04:44) and so she did, “Umm [looks away]—it’s hard for me to live up to people’s standards of me [slightly moves in seat] because I am Asian I feel like people only see my looks and I feel like I should act or be a certain way [shakes head] so, for example, just yesterday I went to an Eric Church concert with my brothers and, I don’t know why [shrugs shoulders], but I felt very out of place” (05:03). This is the type of example of an everyday obstacle for Maggie. You might wonder why, why did she feel out of place? It’s just a concert, isn’t it? Well, I wondered the same thing. So, I asked her. She told me this, “Idk—I guess because it was mainly white people [looks up] and I love country music [gestures towards self] and Eric Church but [moves hand] I guess because stereotypes make it seem like specific [air quotes] types of music are targeted for certain types of people” (05:33). It’s hard to think that just because someone doesn’t look or act like everyone else they could feel so out of place.

“You always hear people say oh [air quotes] Asians are good at math.” (16:33). Throughout the interview, our conversation would stem off into new conversation until we had a whole tree of topics we were talking about. One that I realize we mentioned a lot was stereotypes. We went into a full conversation talking about just being ourselves. As I am telling everyone reading this, I told Maggie, “I really like that aspect about you, it’s very admirable” (19:27). And just then Maggie said something, “Thank you, that really means a lot to me because I try so hard to just be myself in everyday life and like we were talking about earlier I try to stray away from stereotypes and just be myself because I refuse to let a stereotype define who I am” (19:33). I began to think about what it must be like to always have people instantly assume something about you before they have even said one word to you. It’s not fair and I believe everyone should take a page from Maggie’s book and not let what other people say who she really is.

If there’s one thing I learned throughout this assignment, it’s that family is so important. Especially to Maggie Phillips. “Yeah sure so my family has always supported me through everything. I think they realize it can be a little difficult for me because of my difference and because of that they’re super supportive in all aspects of my life; school, sports, and just everyday life. They really encourage me to be the best I can be” (07:53). It’s clear to me she loves her family with all of her heart. But as you now know, Maggie was adopted at a very young age, 11 months. I wanted to know her stance on this sensitive topic. So, I asked her “Do you ever find yourself wanting to learn more about your own personal culture since you did grow up with a white family with white customs?” (09:24). Maggie’s answer was a bit shocking to me. She said, “No, not really because— I’ve tasted genuine Chinese food and I absolutely hated it. My number one thing about culture is that the food has to taste good and it also could be because I did grow up here, so I’m just not used to the food but the American greasy food is probably the best food I’ll ever taste so no, I don’t have any desire to learn any more about my heritage” (09:46). I thought this was a very sweet idea but didn’t answer what I really wanted to know. So, to continue the question, I asked Maggie, “Do you ever want to meet your real parents and learn about their lifestyle?” (10:15) Her answer was truly heartwarming, “No, because all I see them as are sperm and egg donors and my real parents are the ones that raised me and loved me and have supported me throughout my life” (10:24). At this point in time, I knew without a doubt that family was a key aspect of Maggie’s life.

After spending nearly half an hour with Maggie, I feel like I truly got a look inside of her world into her everyday life. It’s not always rainbows and sunshine, but I can tell that Maggie isn’t one to give up. She inspires me to ignore the stares, whispers, and, of course, the stereotypes. Despite our differences, we’re all just people.

The Third Tier

Do people’s actions and words deserve to get a rise out of individuals different from them? Is it our duty to fight ignorance and discrimination for the improvement of the younger generation’s future? For being in such a liberal part of the Midwest, she has faced more discrimination than anywhere else. Growing up in three different states, Louisiana, Maryland, and Missouri, her childhood has been shaped to fit the social norm around her. Starting with Louisiana, the southern United States. It wasn’t always easy being an African-American woman in a racist part of town. Growing up with other kids and having them be disgusted by her appearance. She was judged for everything, even the very words she spoke. Apparently being “very articulate with [her] words” and using proper English was not a fad in southern Louisiana (04:21). She was taught well by her mother but was unfortunately made fun of “trying to be white” for not using social slang (04:59). She was not trying to be something she wasn’t; she was living the only way she knew how. They accused her of thinking she was better than the other kids. When she saw other kids experiencing similar racial profiling, she asked for help. She asked her school administrators and they claimed they couldn’t do anything about it. She disagreed, “there is something [they] can do about it. [They] just don’t want to do anything about it” (09:30). She was always “an outcast” and she never even got along with other African-Americans (05:05). She did get “along with white people” but they would often “cross the line” in some of the things they would say (05:05). She has always been isolated because she was different from everybody else. Much like in They Were Just People by Bill Tammeus and Jacques Cukierkorn, a collection of true stories that tell about personal times during the Holocaust. One story in particular about Zygie and Sol Allweiss, a portion of the story says that Zygie was taken in by a nice family because the Germans did not view the “Jews as fellow human beings” much like someone would isolate a person just for their color or appearance (They Were Just People).

When she was in early high school, she began to change; she realized that she was sexually attracted to girls. For her, this was the third tier for social discrimination, and her guardians were not supportive at all. For years she’s been hearing horrible things from the people that she thought were her role models. “We don’t want you to be gay” her mother exclaims, “We want you to have a nice little marriage, with a man” (12:13). Hearing that at an already rebellious age made her even more afraid to express herself. She would try and “force [herself] to be with guys…[she] would always keep going back to girls” (12:13). Trying to be something she was not, she was starting to see that if she tried to live up to her mother’s expectations, she would be miserable her entire life. She realized if her family really loved her, they would not try to change who she already was.

Kansas City is overall, a politically divided city. You have liberals and conservatives; you have safe spaces and places of discrimination. A place that has been safe in her judgment is her place of work. Starbucks has given her a space to be herself and work freely without worry of judgment. She hasn’t “dealt with any racism from [her] co-workers” or “any homophobia” because everyone who works there comes from different backgrounds (14:23). It is important to surround ourselves with positive energy and supportive people, and she found that at her place of work.

So, I asked her what it was like being African-American, homosexual, and a woman. “Sometimes being a woman is like, the third tier” she exclaims (16:08). She has experienced discrimination in all three categories, and the one person she should trust has let her down the most. When she was a young teenager, she was beginning to question her sexuality. “[Her] mother found out that [she] liked girls, and she treated [her] like absolute garbage” (16:40). Her mother took away all of her privileges so she couldn’t contact girls. Her mother used her own religion against her, saying “that’s not what God wants from you” and drove her away from Christianity (16:40). She considered her religion to be her safe space and when her mother used it against her to tell her what she was doing was wrong, she made the decision not to follow any religion. Her mother was ashamed and told her not to express herself on social media out of fear of being embarrassed, but she wasn’t about to change who she was to gratify people she barely even knew. Her relationship with her mother was deteriorating slowly over a period of time, and she has said some crazy things. Her mother asked why she couldn’t be like other parents and “just have to deal with [her] being boy crazy” and not be ashamed of her daughter (19:47). It is hard on her now because she unfortunately still lives with her mother, and their relationship is toxic. It is hard when someone longs for a good relationship with a parent but keeps having to push them away because they aren’t supportive or loving in the ways one would expect. Luckily, she has a strong relationship with her father; she is not completely unsupported in her journey.

One can either dwell on the past or learn from it. This brave young woman has chosen to learn from her past and it has made her so much stronger. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in the black community, it doesn’t matter if you hang around with straight people, gay people, like there is always going to be somebody, somebody that has an issue with you” (24:00). She strives to make a change by encouraging people to be more accepting and open-minded. She gives advice to people in similar situations, “do anything to relieve your stress” she says (26:15). She encourages people not to entertain racism, bigotry, or homophobia. She always picks her battles wisely and intervenes when she feels it is the right thing to do. She doesn’t feel the need to react to everything thrown her way. Patience and tolerance are key for her to live stress-free. “Not every reaction needs a reaction” and I feel everyone should introduce this to their lives and learn from situations (07:13). We as a society should not be focusing on isolating people because they are of a different race, sexuality, or gender. If we express our voice and fight the ignorance and the prejudice in this country, we may be a virtuous nation once again.

A Kuwait Christian Man Who Worked in a Bakery during the Iraqi Invasion

On the 16^th of February 2019, I sat on my desk and began staring intensely at the face of a distinguished middle-aged man with a mustache and a slightly bald head. This was the face of my uncle Faisal Almedej, aged forty-three, who lived in Kuwait. However, his image seemed to be a little bit different from our video calls since he looked uneasy in spite of having expressed great excitement when I requested him for an interview. Family ties play a significant role in my culture as a way of maintaining strong bonds with members of our extended family. Though I did not have a strong connection with Faisal, I knew him from my parents. Also, I knew that he had a family and worked as a mechanical engineer. Faisal was a hard working person and was committed to his family since he wanted the best for his family. I knew my cousin Faisal as a staunch Christian unlike most of the family members who were Muslim. Religion isolated Faisal from my family members, and it always made him stand out from our family members and relatives during social gatherings.

*Faisal’s Uncle, Nasser Al-Shawe.* All rights reserved.

I started our interview by asking him to tell me a little bit about his personality. During the introduction, Faisal stated that he felt different from the rest of the Kuwaiti society because of his Christian roots. I asked Faisal to tell me about a scenario when his Christianity made him feel insecure and discriminated by the Kuwaiti society. Faisal took a deep breath before answering the question since he had a lot of stories to share. I could tell by looking at his eyes that he wished I never brought up that question in our interview. He sighed deeply and began sharing some of the events that had happened to him at the age of twenty. He began by narrating the 1990 Gulf War wherein everybody knew that Iraq had invaded Kuwait (20:40). Faisal narrated this event without emotion since he was furious with the events that took place. His voice changed when he began talking about the invasion of Iraqi forces in Kuwait. He was filled with emotion while talking about how Saddam’s forces hated Shia Muslims in Kuwait. This hatred forced the Iraqis to expel the Kuwaiti Shia’s forces from their houses and started killing them.

During our interview process, I was horrified by the events that Faisal was narrating. I had read about the Iraqi in 1990 which resulted in the Gulf War. I did know that my cousin was affected by the Gulf War since the Iraqi soldiers were intolerant of religious differences because they were Sunni Muslims who were targeting the Shia Muslims in Kuwait. During our interview, I kept wondering how the Iraqi forces would treat a person ruthlessly since he was not a Muslim. Faisal went on narrating the events that took place and uncovering all the hidden secrets done by Iraqi forces. Faisal stated that the Iraqi forces received information that Kuwait had a small population of Christians living there. His voice changed as he said the next words because Iraqi soldiers kicked them out of their house and either killed them or enslaved them. I could not imagine the horror of being in a war zone where your enemy wants to kill you because of your religion.

*A portrait of Uncle Ameen, a teacher during the occupation. All rights reserved.*

Faisal continued talking about how the Iraqi forces were taking control of his neighborhood. Iraqi soldiers used heavy arm machinery such as tanks that shook the earth when they patrolled the streets as a show of strength to the helpless Kuwaiti residents. Faisal stated that the Iraqi forces who kicked him out of his house were no ordinary troops since they wore red caps that identified them as elite soldiers. During their patrol search in Kuwait, the Iraqi forces provoked images of the ruthless elite SS Nazi troop. Faisal was captured by Iraqi forces after they discovered that his father was a Christian. He was then taken in as a slave and was forced to work at the bakery where he was assigned to prepare food for the army.

I kept asking myself why the red-capped Iraqi forces were ruthless to my cousin. Faisal stated that the soldiers had motives of using force to kill or enslave Christians. One of the major reasons was that they had bad blood towards Kuwait since they wanted to take their wealth. Saddam wanted to overthrow the government, subjugate its people, and proceed to collect revenue from the Kuwait oil reserves. The second reason was because of the religious differences between the forces and the Kuwait residents. According to Faisal, the Iraqi forces were ruthless to the Kuwait residents because of their differences in religion. Therefore, they did not care how they treated people living in Kuwait. In our interview Faisal stated that he hates Iraqi soldiers since they took his country and killed more than 400,000 people including women and children (27:51). Faisal recounted how the Iraqi forces used violence to instill fear in Kuwait residents by mistreating them and killing them. He said these words with tears filled in his eyes when giving an account of how he witnessed Iraqi forces hanging old men and women on the streets.

*Kuwait currency during the invasion*, All rights reserved.

I had never considered the deadly impact of intolerance. This is because I viewed intolerance as an undesirable act in our community since it violates the rights of other people. In my opinion, intolerance stops society from benefiting from the social and economic growth of our homeland. Listening to Faisal, I discovered that religious prejudice could lead to mass genocide in our communities. For instance, Hitler used racial differences of the Jews to justify their internment in concentration camps as well as defending the killings that took place during the Holocaust. The Iraqi forces used their faith differences with the Kuwait Shia’s and Christians to justify their slaughter and their inhuman behavior.

Faisal was more than willing to share with me about the hard times he had suffered. He stated that despite being mistreated and forced to live in a deprived environment, he was forced to work at the bakery to cater for his mother and to ensure that other Kuwait families had something to eat. He recalled how each Kuwait family played its role in ensuring that they survived. Faisal’s closest friend, Saad, committed himself to keeping the neighborhood clean by removing the bullets and shells that littered the streets. His father joined the foreign troops in fighting the Iraqi forces that had taken control of Kuwait.

*Shells collected by Faisal’s cousin after the Iraqi invasion, All rights reserved.*

I wanted to find out how the Muslim Kuwaitis treated Faisal during this troubled time of the country. Faisal stated that everybody was committed in ensuring the survival of the homeland and differences went unnoticed. Faisal smiled as he remembered how his Muslim neighbors worked together with him and treated him with a lot of respect. According to Faisal, the Gulf War brought them closer and made them better as a whole than the invasion since they worked and lived together and identified each other as Kuwaiti citizens (18:07). These words filled me with great hope since it meant that the prejudice that people had could be overcome. I questioned myself whether the situation had gotten better for him after the end of the Gulf War. I asked Faisal to share with me the greatest challenge he faces today as a Christian in Kuwait (20:10). Faisal said that the biggest challenge today is that Kuwait residents do not understand the importance of diversifying our societies (21:21). Faisal gave an account of an event where he informed people that he is Christian. His feeling of not being accepted in society was so great that he felt like relocating to a different place. Faisal stated that the idea of him moving was rooted in the hope that one day people would learn to be tolerant and treat each other with respect and consideration, regardless of their religion.

*Emmanuel Benjamin Ghareeb, a Kuwait priest, during the occupation. All rights reserved.*

As he continued speaking, I kept on asking myself why society was unfair to Faisal. He was a person who was loyal to his country and proved to be a true patriot during the Gulf War where he used his position as a baker to provide food for his neighbors. Faisal’s sister, who is also a Christian, used her position in the broadcasting station to leak important news to Kuwait residents who were at a greater risk if the Iraqi forces found them. Faisal discovered that during the difficult time in the country’s history, he had been treated as a brother and friend by his compatriots. However after the war, his identity as a Christian had made him an object of discrimination. Kuwait residents did not remember how he had helped his neighbors by providing food and protecting them from the Iraqi forces. I felt ashamed when I realized that I was part of the problem. I treated everybody with respect, and part of fault rested on me due to the fact that I viewed Faisal’s family as different based on their faith. Faisal’s family did not celebrate the special Islamic religious holidays or go to the mosque. This situation made me realize how my perception towards Faisal affected his being as well as his identity in society.

*A Church that was in Kuwait that is now located in Al-Ahmedi. All rights reserved.*

People should be more accepting of different cultures in our communities. We must understand that each person is entitled to follow his own religious path. People should not be victimized for exercising their freedom of religion. Instead of being prejudiced against people who are different from us, we should treat them with consideration since they are part of the human family. We should judge them based on their actions and character. Therefore, I believe that we should develop an inclusive society which accepts people regardless of their tribe, gender, religion or culture. Also, we should increase our exposure to people who come from different cultures and religious backgrounds because it will help us identify the common values we share as humans. This will help us create a society that accommodates everyone regardless of their religion. Also, it will help in addressing the social injustices taking place in our communities and how people can live together regardless of their religious perspective.