Students Essays: Aurora Lehr

Amphay Thiraphouth | Michael West | Dana Burns
Jesse Sexton | Aurora Lehr

A new generation believes the Dream

By Aurora Lehr
Jackson High School

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a truly amazing person. It is just now, during my junior year of high school that I am realizing exactly how large an effect he has had on our country. When my brother and sisters and I hear about all the bigotry and racism that has happened prior to us, it makes us sick. That may not have been the case were it not for King's initiation of and leadership during the civil-rights movement.

It may seem to my generation that it happened a long time ago, but my mom tells me stories of how when she was in school in the South, she encountered people that still did not agree with equal rights. I, myself, have never been in that area, however I have been warned more than once to be careful of where I go if I do choose to go there. Living here all my life I have never known what it is like to be called derogatory names or be made fun of due to my ethnicity. In fact, it has been just the opposite. People often ask me if I am Hawaiian or Native American and compliment my skin tone or something to that effect. To me racism is foreign, like a book you read and think it was "just a story," until one day you realize it wasn't. 

Amphay Thiraphouth | Michael West | Dana Burns
Jesse Sexton | Aurora Lehr