We talk about equality. We fight for the rights of women, for the LGBTQ community, for racially discriminated minorities. They are as human as anyone else, as their identity was predisposed in their genes. However, there is one group that has existed from the beginning of time, and society still treats them unfairly. I am a member of the aforementioned group.
We constitute 10% of the world's population, yet we are hidden in the shadows. We are found with a myriad of identities, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or race.
In the historical past, those born like us have been shunned in society. We are associated with being sinister, or evil. In some cultures, those who try to eat or write comfortably, as in the way we were born to, are punished. Parents and teachers may slap you in an attempt to convert you, trying to go against the way you were born. From the beginning of time, we were a suppressed group.
We were born into a society designed for the other 90%, with disregard for us. Our mortality rates are much higher (about 9 years shorter lifespan), not because of genetic causes, but because of how society is designed. We are prone to life threatening accidents, because of the way roads are laid out, and how regular tools were designed. We are 4 times more likely to swerve into oncoming traffic, and encounter deadly tools like saws with the safety guard anchored to the other side.
Even though death is not relevant to all of us, we are treated to a lifetime of discomfort. Walk into a lecture hall and think you can sit anywhere you want? Wrong! Unless you want to contort your body into an uncomfortable position, you must sit in a limited amount of designated spots. We are unable to take proper notes without getting painful red lines imprinted onto our hand, or covered with a layer of unsightly graphite.Cutting open plastic food bags with scissors for sustenance is also an absolute struggle.
This is why I demand justice and social recognition for all those who tend to the left! I see the work that's being done, and I really applaud the progressiveness of society. As laptops are popularized, touchpads are placed in the middle, versus the rightcentric mouse setup we've grown to know. Also, I'm grateful for the establishment of Left-Handers day, August 13. The increasing accounts of US presidents being left handed also contributed to the cessation of teachers converting students. However, I believe we need more awareness. We should have left handed clubs in all schools, where we can have a safe space cutting paper with left scissors. We should have a left history month, where we learn about the famous left handed people and those who refused change to right to appeal to society. We should have left parades where people shake hands and wave using their left.
However, society was not designed to be on our side and it will not change. Traffic will still run on the right, turning doors will still spin counter clockwise.
My only act of protest is to spin around them twice.
(Author's note: You may read this in a satirical tone, or not. I wrote this on a whim after struggling to cut a piece of autoclave tape. Go figure.)
