What is respect? We may be aware of the role of respect in our daily lives; after all, it is the foundation of our social and mental lives. However, a majority of us do not know the true meaning of the word. According to the dictionary, respect is to “have due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions” of a person. Does this mean that we owe everyone a certain amount of respect? In the past, respect was considered to be something that needed to be earned. However, respect is actually something that we owe to everyone. To begin with, if we do not show respect, we are asserting the idea of superiority of one person over another. This enforces an unjust code amongst everyone that interacts. Henry David Thoreau, a famous American author and philosopher, states that we should “Treat the individual with respect as a neighbor.” Although he was referring to the government-citizen relationship, we can find a person-person truth in this as well. We do not need to like someone. We do not need to spend time with them, or speak to them, or do anything involving them. However, we do owe them respect. We are all people. We all have different views that others may not agree with. This does not mean that we can ostracize people who disagree with us. In Antigone, the play by …show more content…
If you give someone no respect, for example, other people will notice this fatal flaw in character. This results in demotion of respect from others. It’s a vicious circle that unfortunately exists. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaims that “Degrade(ing) human personality is unjust.” This shows that no matter who we are, and no matter who we are communicating with, we all need to respect each other! And Thoreau has quite a solution: “If the injustice… is of such a nature that requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then,... stop.” It’s as simple as that. Treat someone how you would like to be