Texas V. Johnson, 'Would You Wish, And The Lottery'

“We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.” What does this quote have anything to do with our first unit in english class? Some of the passages: Texas v Johnson, What of this goldfish, would you wish, and The Lottery. These passages imply why people should accept each other and what they believe in.
Texas v Johnson was a supreme court case majority ruling written by Justice William Brennan. The main idea of the passage was, to inform everyone about what happened in the court case, which was when Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American Flag at the Republican National Convention in the year 1984. He thought he was simply protesting, however Texas’s law bans being able to do that. He was arrested

and fined, but through many court cases, all the way up to the supreme court. For burning a flag? I mean yeah as a patriotic American that’s like a sin, but to some people it doesn’t mean as much as it does to others. “The way to preserve the flag's special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters. It is to persuade them that they are wrong”. (lines 37-39) We as a nation cannot discriminate those who feel differently about a symbol of our country. We can only try to persuade them to change how they express their opinion. Or that they’re opinion is wrong, but is there such a thing as a wrong opinion? “The way to preserve the flag's special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters. It is to persuade them that they are wrong”. (lines 4-6) This is a really fancy way to say, we aren’t encouraging anyone to burn a flag, but we can’t punish them for it. Someone’s expression is protected by the First Amendment, as long as it is peaceful and non harmful. Not everybody will agree with that person's decision, but we cannot throw someone in jail for what they say. The person should be accepted, and we as Americans should be open to hear what they have to say.
What of this goldfish, do you wish.

Was a passage about a boy named Yoni, who wanted to make a documentary of him going up to strangers and asking them what they would wish for if they had a magic goldfish that could grant three wishes. Lets just say Yoni ended up at a man named Sergi Goralick’s house in Tel Aviv. This man Sergi was not too fond of Yoni’s idea, but Yoni didn’t realize how insane Sergi was. Sergi owns a pet goldfish, so Yoni went over towards the goldfish, then Sergi hits him over the head with a coffee burner. Yoni is laying on the kitchen floor dead, blood all over the place. Now Sergi’s pet goldfish starts talking. Turns out he does in fact own a magic fish that can talk, but Sergi only has one wish left. The goldfish tries to persuade Sergi to use the last wish on making Yoni alive, by rewinding time to before he knocked on Sergi’s door. However, if Sergi uses his last wish, he’ll have nobody to talk to, because he only lives with a talking fish. Sergi does use his last wish on Yoni, and Sergi says his final goodbye to his friend, the goldfish. Where does acceptance fall into this passage? ‘ "To wish my wish," Sergei says. "My last." The fish swishes his fish tail back and forth in the water, the way he does, Sergei knows, when he's truly excited. The goldfish can already taste freedom. Sergei can see it on him. After the last wish, Sergei won't have a choice. He'll have to let the goldfish go. His magic goldfish. His friend.’ (lines 158-163) Sergi is

begin to accept the fact that he needs to use his one last wish, and release his pet goldfish for good. ‘“He can’t be dead,” Sergei says, with a moan. “I barely touched him. It’s only a burner. Only a little thing.” Sergei holds it up to the fish, taps it against his own skull to prove it. “It’s not even that hard.”’ (lines 110-113) Sergi came to a reality shocker when he realized what he had done. He couldn’t accept the fact that he killed an innocent kid. If Sergi just allowed Yoni to enter his home and help him with the documentary, then Sergi would’ve never lost his beloved goldfish.
The Lottery may not have had a nice ending for Mrs.

Hutchinson. Death by stones isn’t the way most people would like to die, but in this story Mrs. Hutchinson didn’t get to much of a choice. The Lottery is exactly what it sounds like. A random drawing from a box, with one big winner. Although being a winner isn’t a great thing this time around. I’m sure you can picture all of the arguing and excuses everyone has when they draw the “winning” slip, because I don’t think people like giving up their life for their small village’s superstitions. ‘Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head.’ (lines 322-324) Mrs. Hutchinson says “it isn’t fair”, because she’s the one dying, but if it wasn’t her I bet she would say it’s fair. She couldn’t accept her fate. ‘Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly. "Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody." "Some places have already quit lotteries," Mrs. Adams said "Nothing but trouble in

that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools."’ (lines 194-223) Old Man Warner thinks that the lottery is a great thing and it should always be in the village. The fact that some villages have gotten rid of the lottery is mind boggling to him. He cannot accept the other villages way of not having a lottery.
“We as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves”. See how this quotation played a role in the first unit of our text book. The idea of acceptance fluently flowed throughout the passages. So what? Why is acceptance such a big thing? If you plan on working with people that aren’t exactly what you expect them to be, then how will you ever be able to talk to them? You will shut that person down immediately, meaning you will not want to talk to them, or want them to be a part of your life whatsoever. Not everyone you meet in life will enjoy the same type of music as you, or practice the same religion as you, or have a similar view on politics as you. That doesn’t mean you have to avoid them constantly! Being able to accept people for who they are is an important thing to be able to do.