[tld221]

i think for everyone to be better people, you should experience at least one, if not all, of these things:

1. being a minority
2. being in poverty
3. being ugly in a societal sense (not "my chest is so flat and my nose is weird" ugly, but facial scars and maybe a deformity)
4. being disabled (an extension of my reasoning from # 3).
5. be fat (even if its maybe 10-20 pounds more than if you were "normal" size)

i have attested to all except # 4 (which i am thankful for), and i think its made me a greater, stronger person than say, my roommate, who has recently lost about 50 pounds, now a rich, white, thin female. i think her being overweight "forced" her into being really booksmart (the whole "beauty or brains" thing, you cna agree or disagree), which is why she's graduating summa cum laude.

[defense]now nobody come after me now. she is just one person i'm applying the reasoning to, and im not generalizing it to a group of anyone, nor am i saying that a girl who is smart is probably not the most aesthetically pleasing. you can just as well be both, or neither.[/defense]