RESPECT

By: Paije Peck
Sep. ?th, 2010
Aretha Franklin once wrote a song that went like this: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me! Justa,justa little bit baby, uh huh, a little RESPECT!” and so on. She was practically begging for respect! She obviously felt disrespected by her husband. She was basically demanding respect from him! Like Aretha, there have been times when I have felt disrespected also. Can you demand respect from someone else, or do you have to earn it?
Lack of respect is a problem in our society. People have trouble feeling respect for other people, especially kids for their parents. Just like Aretha Franklin, people think that they can somehow demand it; that they are entitled to respect! When did we become so ignorant? People just don’t understand how respect works. They have relationship ignorance. I know a story of a girl who overcame her relationship ignorance and learned what respect really meant.
The story begins with a girl who didn’t have respect for anyone but herself. She was cocky and proud and because of this, the relationship between her and her parents was disastrous. Her problem was that she didn’t have RESPECT.
In order to gain respect, you have to give respect first.
Here are three ways to gain it:
1: You need to change yourself first.
One day, the girl was hanging out at a friend’s house. They decided that they were going to have some kind of party that week. After they had officially decided, the girl unexpectedly stated that her parents wouldn’t let her come to the party. The mother of the household asked why, and the girl then said: “ Because I just know my parents won’t let me. They never let me do anything I want to. We’re like worst enemies.” Upon hearing this, the mother decided to try and help the girl. So, she gave this girl a challenge. She said: “Go home and try to get along with your parents for two weeks. Do whatever they tell you to do right when they ask you. But don’t have a saucy attitude about it. Just say OKAY. We will post-pone the get-together just for you. Believe me, after you’ve tried this, you will have a better relationship with your parents.” At first, the girl didn’t believe her, but, the mother reassured her. So the girl finally went home and decided to tried it.
The key word here is OKAY. When you say this word in answer to an instruction that your parent(s)-or any other adult- gives you, then you have just given them the respect that they have been wanting and expecting from you. When you respect them, they feel that you are worth giving respect to in return.
2: Just do it. Even if you don’t want to, just try it.
As the girl was going along with the challenge that she had excepted, she noticed that the relationship between her and her parents was surprisingly getting better. She also noticed that whenever she followed an instruction given to her, she was more selfless, her parents were happier and she got to do the things she wanted to when she wanted to more often.
3: Realize what you have just overcome and stick with using the effective system that helped you overcome those challenges.
It’s probably best if you stick to the effective system that you have found and used. If you go back to fighting, being disobedient, having no respect for anything, etc…than what was the use of the effective system that made your life better than it was before? If we don’t keep up a good system, then we can never achieve anything we want to.
This girl ended up being able to go to this party that her and her friends had planned. During the party, the mother asked how the challenge/experiment went. The girl said “I think the challenge worked and went great! I’m now the best of friends with my Mom and Dad!“ The girl then apologized to the mother that she had doubted her advice. She also said that she would try always to respect other people from that point forward.
Rosa Parks was also a great example of someone who understood respect. Mrs. Parks lived in Alabama during the time when segregation was very prevalent. One day, while entering a city bus, she paid at the front and started walking down the isle from the front of the bus down to the back of the bus. As she was walking, the bus driver grabbed hold of Rosa’s coat sleeve and told her to get off and get on at the back “like her own kind”. She contradicted the driver and said that she was already on the bus so, why did she have to get off again and go to the back? The driver ended up kicking her off the bus. The segregated social system disrespected Rosa for her color and nationality. She promised herself that she would never ride that man’s bus again. One day after work, twelve years later, Rosa accidentally got on that same bus. She paid at the front but forgot to look at who the driver was before she sat down. A few stops later, some more people got on the bus. Some happened to be white. All the whites sat down except one because there were no more seats. Finally, two ladies across from Rosa stood up so the man could sit down. Then a colored man by Rosa stood up too. Rosa did not stand up. Suddenly, the driver stormed up to Rosa and shouted: “Well, aren’t you going to stand up?” and she calmly and politely said: “No”. What Rosa was telling and showing other people was that her and all the other coloreds in the South wanted, expected and needed more respect from other people, and she did it in a calm way.

Some people might think that Rosa was being disrespectful to the bus driver and to the other white people in order to gain the respect she desired. After all, couldn’t she have done what the other girl did in the story I previously mentioned? Couldn’t Rosa Parks have just said O.K. to the bus driver and the other passengers? The answer is no. Why? Because Rosa wasn’t disrespected because of her disrespect to other people. She was disrespected because of her physical appearance.
Rosa was calm about the whole situation. Her calmness was the best way to earn respect from people who were byest against her. She didn’t need to yell for respect, she didn’t have to be violent for respect. All she needed to do was to show respect with calmness.
Respect is a very important thing to have and give. When we give respect, we are being peacemakers. And when we receive respect, we feel appreciated. But, also when we give it, we are respected by others. Having respect and a calm feeling will make us leaders if we choose to be. People who have respect and a calm feeling about them-especially calmness-have power. The calm feeling that we have will help others feel calm as well. And then, if the two people have the same feeling of calmness, then most likely they will understand each other much better than they would have before. Even though Aretha Franklin doesn’t completely understand what respect means, she did know one thing. Her song says: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T! find out what it means to me!…” We will all get more respect if we take the time to understand what the word RESPECT means to the person you want respect from.

The Hobbit

By John Baker

October 12, 2009



The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is a great story that is a lot of fun to read. My favorite part is on page 30. It is my favorite part because it is just so funny.

“If you have seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this was only

Poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even Old Took’s great-granduncle

Bullroarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged

The ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and

Knocked their king Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a

Hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit hole, and in this way the

Battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.”



My favorite characters are all of them but especially Balin and Fili and Kili. I like Balin because he’s cool. I like Fili and Kili because they died defending Thorin with only a shield in the battle of Five Armies. I admire their courage.



At the beginning of the book Tolkien says about Bilbo, “He may have lost his neighbor’s respect, but he gained--well you will see whether he gained anything in the end” (p.16).

I think Bilbo gained a lot. He got a lot of gold. He grew in courage and he learned from his experiences. When they made bad choices there were consequences. They learned to make better choices because of their experiences. Tolkien says at the end that Bilbo lost his neighbor’s respect, but that’s okay. Bilbo didn’t mind anyway.