The idea of being human has grown foggy over the course of time. During the time of the Romantic writers such as Emerson and Thoreau, society knew that being human meant showing justice, courage, compassion, and love. It seems that society since the Deep South Reconstruction has created and blurred the line between being humane, showing the before mentioned characteristics, and being merely human, displaying only the physical signs of the species. Organizations, like the Nazi Party and the Klu Klux Klan, and popular television shows have clouded the idea of human decency. Inhumane acts like mass extermination and civil violence have become acceptable because they are performed as we as a society ignore them. Over time, the constant bombardment of these images from newscasts and primetime TV causes us to become immune to their significance. As a result, we as a society often ignore that we must act with justice, courage, compassion, and love toward each other in order to !

We begin to lift the haze that clouds the distinction between humane and merely human when we seek justice for each other. Justice is defined as acting in accord with what is accepted as ethical law. W

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hen translated into the average college student's vocabulary, it means looking out for the rights of others, but what does the word "others" mean? A simple way of looking at it is "others" includes all members of the human race. This was the idea when the Allied troops of WWII sought justice for the Jewish people. The Nazi Party of the late 1930's and early 1940's deprived the Jewish people of the right to live, a horrible act of injustice. Led by Hitler, they systematically exterminated over

In addition to justice and courage, we must also look on each other with compassion in order to revert from being inhumane. Acting with compassion toward our fellow citizens of humanity has become taboo due to the build up of the masculinization principle by popular television shows such as WWF Warzone and Celebrity Death Match. Popular opinion according to these shows says a wrong should act as retribution for wrong, which leaves no chance for mercy or forgiveness. Many of us agree with this idea and wonder why we should care for showing pity and mercy. On the most selfish

Justice, courage, and compassion all coexist under the umbrella of love because without love the successful combination of these three characteristics does not exist. Of these three characteristics, while all are

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 921
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)