When the hair style for men was long, if you cut your hair short you were unacceptable. When the hair style for men was short, if you grew your hair long, your were unacceptable. If you were a woman and the proper hair style was long, if you cut your hair short, your were less than unacceptable. However, woman seem to have always been accepted with long hair, an unwritten stereotype that remains intact to this very day.

What is this hair length business? I believe it is part of the fact that our society holds different as unacceptable and clings to stereotyping. It is very unfortunate fact that society as a whole wants everyone to fit into a rubber mold and come out looking and acting like them. Prejudice and discrimination run rampant in our society and often lead to death and suicide among those who are different, either by birth, circumstances or choice. I say this is very unfortunate because these people who are different deserve a chance like everyone else. Society doesn't bother to find out who they are, what their character is, why they are like they are, what their skills are, and further more they don't care. These people just don't belong; they are different. They are judged without a trial by a jury who has no mercy.

An application comes to an employer and he reads a wonderful resume attached. The person is well qualified for the job and has a track record of doing the job well, and then he interviews the person. They are different, how will his other employees react to them? He decides not to hire them because others might cause trouble in the work place because they are different. Are they law abiding, tax paying citizens who are well trained in their profession? Well, yes. Do they meet the qualifications of the job and would they make a good employee? Well, yes. Will you give them a chance? No, because they are different.

What makes this person different? Well, they were born with a birth defect, they have a handicap, they have a sexual orientation that is not acceptable to me and my way of thinking, they have a religion that I don't personally believe in, they are a race that I can't tolerate, they have a tattoo, they have too many earrings, and yes, their hair is too long or too short. Are they clean, neat and can they do the job and do it to the specifications of the job? Well, yes. However, you must understand they are different, so I can't hire them.

What have you done to a perfectly fine person, lowered their self-esteem, made them feel like a criminal when they have done nothing wrong, taken away their chance to succeed at something they are good at and taken away their hope and dream of fitting into a society that doesn't want to recognize them because "they are different?"

Heaven help us, that God made some less than perfect in societies' eyes. He made some with a uniqueness that others don't want to understand or love. How they must hurt, no wonder they fall between the cracks. They have a potential that never gets a chance, never gets to bud and blossom, never has an opportunity to grow and show forth its beautiful flower. Some say they are the minority, but I wonder. Perhaps if they were not afraid to come forth and be seen for the way they were created, they would be the majority. Perhaps if they were not outcast and ridiculed by society, they might actually be the majority. Now there is food for thought.

� Phyllis Ann ([email protected])