Better Man (49/90)

I'm about to go stay at a friend's house for the night, so I figured I should update now.

Today I drove through a ridiculous storm with my brother. Oh good lord, that's probably the worst storm I've seen in a bit. But my brother was fine with it. I, however, could hardly see out of the windshield, and the wipers were at their highest settings. But then again, I really don't like storms in general.

I've been reading Goblet of Fire a lot today, since I've been recently distracted by the new information about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Today's post may be about what Sirius Black says about Mr. Crouch when they all were discussing Winky. "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." (My book is currently packed, and I'd like to finish this post before I leave in about five minutes, so I'll post other details later.)

It's really hard to tell who is someone's inferior and who's not nowadays. At least, not at first glance. You can run into two people on the bus and not see any differences between them, and then later you can find that one is "inferior" to the other. And the concept of inferiority has been changed now. It's not like the difference between a house-elf and a human; now it's much more subtle. It's the difference in a zero at the end of a paycheck. The difference of education. The difference of skill.

With this in mind, there are people who do believe that they are above the rest because of these reasons. And to see how they treat those "beneath" them will give you the measure of the man. Just walk around any city. There are so many homeless people, just wanting to be fed. Many people will just walk on by, mainly because of the stories we hear. They tell us that if you give them money, they'll just go and spend it on alcohol, not to help improve their situation.

But there are people who will give them food, instead of money. An easy way to combat this, and to help as well. And there are others who look down upon them, without knowing their situation in life. A good number of homeless people are veterans, I've heard. Sure, some of them may have done something in their past to get them to the position they're in today, but not all of them.

And there are those, who I have seen at my high school, who will not associate with someone if they don't live up to the standards they have been used to. For example, if the family doesn't make enough money, then they will start to distance themselves. The latest iPod or designer purse was the easiest way for some in our halls to base who was inferior to them.

It's sad to see how some people will treat others, based on superficial things like this. It goes along with Dumbledore's quote about choices, not abilities, that make who we are. Can we choose to ignore these "inferiorities" that exist? Or can we choose to eliminate them completely? Is it even possible?

How will we know if we don't try?