Being a good Neighbor

Being a good neighbor takes several different things into consideration according to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as written in his essay “On Being a Good Neighbor.”(IS 438) Being a good neighbor is far more then just being nice and friendly to the people that live next door to you or those who live around your neighborhood. According to Christ in Kings’ essay, a neighbor “… is anyone toward whom you are neighborly. He is any one who lies in need at life’s roadside. He is neither a Jew nor a Gentile; he is neither Russian nor American; he is neither Negro nor white. He is ‘a certain man’-any needy man- on one of the numerous Jericho roads o life. (IS 438).” If someone is in need that person is our neighbor; No matter what race they might be, what god or gods they believe in, what sexual preference they have, or what gender they belong to. King also states that if we, as people, only worry about our own nationality, and take the phrase “Thou shall not kill to mean Thou halt not kill a fellow Israelite, but for God’s sake, kill a Philistine. (IS 439)” We, as humans, need not to be all consumed by the color of someone’s skin because we are all humans and each of us as human beings should care about the welfa

King recounts how the Good Samaritan helps an injured man even after two other "respectable" citizens pass him by. It is easy for us as humans to just send some money overseas, but it is not as simple to actually care enough to get down it the trenches with them to lend a helping hand (IS 440). King goes on to say that if we, as people, "only give our money to support the fund of helping the poverty and less fortunate, yet we are not willing to actually show them our compassion and get down there with them to actually help them ourselves, we are not actually showing the people of those more impoverished countries the compassion that they as human beings so rightfully deserve. Why should it matter if a person is black or white, Catholic or Jewish when we are all apart of the same human race King hits the nail on the head when he compares stories of the Good Samaritan and the college Negro team to explain and demonstrate how horrible humans can be because of the race or the beliefs. We can learn from our mistakes as well as the mistakes of others to become better people. Some people believe that because of your skin color you are, the gender you are, or the nationality you come from will make you less capable to do a certain job. We are all a part of the human race, and because of this our slight differences, such as race or nationality, makes us unique, but in no way disqualify one from being a human. This all angers me so much because how someone can believe these things. I wholly agree that there is too much segregation and persecution of people because of differences that do not make us better or worse off but human. The Samaritan then pays for him to get better as long as it might take (IS 438)" These are basically Kings Views on how we should treat each other as individuals not because of what race, religion, or gender we are. Also they believe no white man should ever have to help or be concerned with a black man because he is nothing put property or a second rate citizen. An ambulance came but does not help them because they are black. I see no difference between a white man and a black man other then the color of his skin, so why would they be treated differently and not be allowed to access some of the same things such as hospitals or resources to have a better education It is not possible but it is nice to envision a world were violence and racism have no a part; unfortunately, it is something some of us live with every day.