Respecting Other People’s Choices Leads to Peace

When I announced that I was applying for a promotion, many of my colleagues thought I was crazy and ridiculed me fiercely. I was the last hired in the department and had less than three years on the job. I had seen an advertisement for a promotion to Electronic Technician, and the qualification was a Second-Class Radio license issued by the Federal government. I immediately researched the criteria for the license, and I started taking classes from the company to help me learn what was needed. I eventually went to a technical school and earned the right to take the exam for my license. I passed!

Then, I applied for the job, which meant greater pay, better hours, and more prestige. I learned that people will ridicule your dreams or how you see yourself, but you can’t allow their negativity to derail your sense of self and what you are capable of becoming.

When I saw “Congratulations” as the first word in the letter from the employment bureau, I started running for the stairs. I grabbed the intercom and announced that I had been promoted! I was so happy, but before the day was out, grievances against my promotion were being discussed by nearly everyone above me. But, they had not tried to earn the criteria needed, and all the ridicule launched at me that made going to work often painful was worth it.

This event taught me to respect other people’s choices and dreams. I don’t always understand the choices people make but I try to be respectful and positive towards them and their choices. As a Christian, I do not force my beliefs on others. I tell people about the love of God for all people, and I believe that and try to live it by showing the love of God through my actions and the way I treat people.

There are choices that really aren’t choices because it is just how people feel they were born. Those choices(?) must cause people great anxiety and fear of being rejected and maybe hurt physically, emotionally, or socially by others. I somehow know the choices aren’t easy, and I try not to add to the ridicule and hurt that some people hink they have a right to inflict on others who see themselves differently.

I think that peace on earth would be possible if we respected people’s choices more. It is about seeing other people’s humanity and realizing that we don’t have to be alike to be respected as human beings sharing the planet. We all come into this world with different opportunities because of the categories of difference we construct that make some people seem better or superior. It is hard to live on this planet that sometimes seems like a cosmic prison because of the suffering and pain of illness, death, poverty, hate and bigotry, and sexism. But respect can go a long way toward peace on earth.