Writer Decision Essay Examples

Reminiscing, one always finds key moments in life where now, with more experience and wisdom, the course to be taken would be different. In sixth grade, I had the pleasure of interacting almost daily with one of the noblest people I have ever come across: Mr. Mark Lewis. Nevertheless, I was young, and, because of my prejudices, I mistreated him, and did not take advantage of the contact to learn from his wisdom. In retrospective, I see him as an emblem that allowed me to realize an analysis of America and its flaws, learn that one should tolerate differences, and appreciate the value of following your beliefs to their logical conclusions.
Looking back on this, I observe that these problems are also the problems of America as a whole. The impossibility to tolerate differences instead of placing them in a hierarchy has plagued this country from the beginning. President Obama said that racism is America’s “original sin”, yet I believe it goes deeper than that, into the concept of discrimination, not restricted to that specific case. Intolerance of all kinds of differences is harmful. The fact that this teacher was different, led to his belittlement by those who he was trying to teach, and make better. The difference between human beings is a given fact; nevertheless, what is important is how you perceive and handle these variations.
As such, Mr. Lewis taught us that one should tolerate these differences, trying to treat everyone equally well. By going against the grain, he put this into action, disregarding money and racism to focus on what he thought was right. He positioned himself to be able to impact the greatest number of people with this message. Furthermore, he was trying to teach people at an age where they are still impressionable, being bombarded by a culture so opposite from his worldview. One of the saddest aspects of this is that people did not pay attention to his message because of what the message itself warned against and tried to counter. While it is true that he was much denigrated, in retrospective I can see that, had he not put himself there, he would be in no position to sustain what he said. There was virtually no other place he could have been that would have gotten his message across farther and stronger.
In effect, his commitment to his values is something to be honored. In this society, where everything has a price, Mr. Lewis proclaimed that values didn’t. Instead of breaking in line to do what would earn him more money and prestige, he preferred to stay at a modest job, but that allowed him to do what he truly wanted to, both for himself and for others. One needs to stand up for his or her values, and follow them to the maximum consequences; if not, they are not worth sustaining. This insistence on right and wrong, individual laws and following these to their logical conclusions characterized his teachings; he constantly made an example of both Socrates and Jesus, not for their actual teachings, but for following this way of living.
In conclusion, Mr. Lewis has been one of the people that I have learnt from most in life, even though only in retrospective. Even though he was an excellent teacher, and very intelligent, because of his effeminate manner and the color of his skin, he was ridiculed by students, parents and peers alike, staying where he was because that was the place where he could do most good. Sadly, we live in a culture where differences are not tolerated, but are a source of hatred and discrimination. In contrast with this, Mr. Lewis proposed that one should actually tolerate these differences. One of his most important teachings was that one should follow his or her core values to their logical conclusion, no matter what. It is sad that I, along with many others, could only see all of this after his death. Nevertheless, I believe the fact that he achieved to transmit his fundamental philosophy after all, would have been satisfactory to him.