Growing up I was always told by my mother to respect my elders. No one really knew why we should; we just did what we were told. As a matter of fact, we really didn't know what respect was. Respect to me, when I was a child, seem like some thing to do out of fear, but as a grown woman, I see respect as a form of loving, cherishing and admiring. I respect things for what they are, not because I am told to do so.
             I used to feel that I must respect everyone, but realized that is almost impossible. How can I respect someone who hates me? Or even better yet, some one who's ways in life are an abomination to me? I can give the respect to let them make their own choices, but in my head I know I don't respect them. I am a woman very set in my ways, and it is hard to persuade me to agree with anything that can take me away from my morals. I am very tolerable of things that I don't like, or even hate, but I do that to respect the fact that I do things others find intolerable.
             I had a mentor whom I've respected so much I called him Father. I lost respect for him one day and I no longer call him Father. I was having a conversation with him and a few others about everyday things, when he started talking about women like they were objects. I felt betrayed. I still respect him as the man who made me politically conscious, but I don't respect him as the man whom I was proud to be affiliated with.
             I am Indian, and respect is something that I take serious. In our tribe my own grandfather's grandfather was named the Chief, because his father was highly respected. My tribe was a warrior tribe, but they were not always that way. When the settlers came from the seas, they allowed them to live on the land as long as the settlers understood the land didn't belong to anyone. They showed the settlers how live off the land. The settlers weren't satisfied, mostly they had the understand
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