Pride 

-Noun

a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

Thank you Dictionary.com.

Pride is without a doubt good feeling. It’s nice to believe that you have the best sports team or go to a superior school. It is the strongest force of unification, and gives people who are otherwise much different a reason to come together. Unfortunately, as people band together, others are separated, creating a rivalry in pride, a schism in beliefs, and in other words, enemies.

I am proud to be a Ranger. I enjoy going to FHC. I am appreciative of all the benefits I receive from living here. Why shouldn’t I be? I know I will graduate more prepared for college than a lot of American High School graduates will be. We have an impeccable staff and students who work with diligence both inside the classroom and on the field. We deserve to be proud of our test scores as well as our athletes. At FHC we have so many things we can be proud about.

Every day, I see and hear Ranger Pride in an extensive array of forms, but I cringe when I see our well deserved pride conveyed to others as unrepeatable, crude, and insulting statements. By doing this we forsake our pride to ignorance.

The practice of  excluding, attacking, or degrading others with different beliefs or affiliations is not pride, but prejudice. This constant devolution of pride to discrimination is so ingrained in our society that it happens everyday. Driven by the undeniable existence of the human need to ‘belong’ to a cause, the atrocity of how people express opinions it is often overlooked.

I have heard good, honest, otherwise nondiscriminatory people express opinions in a way that persecutes the opposite sentiment, not because they are a malicious person, but simply because it is how society has evolved to express strong beliefs.

In no way am I saying that everyone should be a big happy family, or that the consideration of others feelings should stop free speech. Stating your opinions passionately should be encouraged. Everyone has the right to express their way of life, affiliations, and opinions. What human kind should keep in mind when exercising free speech is that it doesn’t matter what you say you believe or support, it matters how you say it.

A tall individual said, “I like to be tall. It makes me feel good and I buy some really cool extra long pants.” This is okay. They are confident about their height, they are proud.

However if the same individual said, “ HA I am tall. I can reach things, see better over crowds and all I can literally look down on other people. Oh you’re short? Oh that sucks you should be like me.” The statement would shame the people who have different opinions.

Height is a relatively mundane topic when compared to large political and social issues, (examples:  race, religion, sexual orientation, the list could go on) but it serves as a decent example.

Even within our own school we foster competition between classes when in actuality the only difference between the Senior, Junior, Sophomore, and Freshmen classes are birth-dates.

At the end of the day, no side ever wins because everyone wants to believe they are the “good guy”. However if pride is expressed with compassion the good and bad cease to exists and in there place is simply a difference of opinion. Only when pride is expressed with malignant intent does any one opinion become wrong.

I am not going to change the social divides, they will always exist.  By human nature people are different, and the lack of consistency is what makes life unique. Different does not mean wrong, but it definitely doesn’t warrant reason to brutalize others to lift themselves up.

I am so unbelievably proud to be a Ranger, but that is not an excuse for me to say all other schools are terrible.
If there is anything worth having pride over it is being respectful to others.