Last week, we had to scribe personal codes of ethics for one of my classes.

When I shared this with some of my friends, they laughed in my face and told me to simply staple three sheets of blank paper together, write my Banner number on the packet and turn it in.

But after it was all said and done, after I spent a few long hours really asking myself what I believe in and how I believe in it, I came to the conclusion that I really don’t know what I believe. And that’s not to say I don’t have values and people who are important to me; I just came to the conclusion there are very few of them who remain significant as things change – that when it comes down to it, I very much enjoy taking life as it goes without a prepared view on how to interpret whatever may come along as I grow up.

I pretty much summed it down to these next few paragraphs:

“Personally and professionally, I try to strive to put the values of equity, community and diversity at the forefront of all decisions I make. But the way I value social cohesion is choosing to promote the inequities and inequalities that hinder society from developing into what everyone seems to want it to be. When I said earlier (in the paper) we are all looking for all those people, places and things to believe in, but few consider why we are looking in the first place. It’s not hard to realize the inequities and inequalities that keep us segregated and morally divided.

“We’re at a point in our social development as a human race, however, in which I think more and more people are realizing the issues and circumstances pushing us apart are the ties that ultimately bind us. It may be easier than ever in history to seek out and try to understand new things, but half or more of being educated is admitting it and wanting to learn.

“I believe progress as a society is most important.”

So often, those who seem against equality or who don’t seem to consider what we sacrifice by accepting “the way things are” neglect to consider what they’re implying in doing so. Is a world in which everyone believes in exactly the same ideas the utopia we who are different can’t seem to wrap our heads around?

I’d like not to believe anyone is so narrow-minded, but it’s hard to see otherwise when so many people choose to remain ignorant and so many bigots who have influence over the masses neglect the inherent differences that make us, in the end, humans.

Whether you believe God created the world in seven days or we evolved from apes, something in the beginning fundamentally inspired differences between all people. We are not a race of clones.

So why do we keep trying to be? We don’t really; we just want everyone else to seem like us – to like the same things and believe the same ideas as us – so that we feel a little less alone. The thing is none of us are alone because that which makes us dissimilar is really all we ever truly have in Adam Griffiths is a junior visual journalism major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected]