R- High school student

A- Teacher
F- Letter explaining how we must fix our was
T- Human Rights/Ethnic Differences

Dear Mrs. Teacher,

Hi, Im Madeline and I have lived here my whole life. Same town, same street, same house same
everything for as long as I could remember, but I have just visited America for the first time last month
because my uncle has moved there and it has come to my attention about how differently the people
are treated their compared to here. The definition of human rights is a right that is justifiably believed to
belong to each person. And as odd as it may seem Americans have better everything. With a
multicultural society like us you would automatically assume that they would go into chaos every ten
minutes like us but they dont. They seem to have everything well put together and not as many
problems. I just dont understand why we dont try and learn from them. America allows the gays to be
gays and the Christians to be Christians and they all seem to be happy with each other unlike us. In 2013
Putin signed over a law to for a three year imprisonment for anyone who publicly mocks any type of
religion which isnt even a law being enforced, I think the fact that the law even needs to be put into
place is quiet ridiculous. Russias recent problems with human and ethnic rights is causing some major
conflicts between the government and the NGOs. How does our government want us Russians to speak
out about our rights if we need permission to do so? Kind of ironic dont you think? We have had
tremendous problems with gay rights, why does it matter as to whom people may marry? Does that
really effect the government so much that they wont allow it? People who against the law to become
more outspoken about their rights are pretty much shot down (literally and figuratively). The
government doesnt care as to what we do as long as its not bothering them. Russia has also faced
numerous problems with ethnic differences. When we were the USSR we had over 120 ethnic minorities
and it wasnt a problem and now, originally everyone obviously thought that would cause humongous
problems but at the end of the day Lenin found a way to make it work with minimal altercations. Then
when Joseph Stalin came into the picture he attempted to force everyone into the same group of people
leading to so many problems that werent necessary in any type of way. Even today the people of the
Ukraine believe that they should be their own independent nation without involving themselves with
the us; due to the fact they have so many different minorities and ethnicities in their area. After the
inspection wave, at least 55 groups received warnings not to violate the law and at least 20 groups
received official notices of violation directly requiring them to register as foreign agents. As these issues
arise there seem to be more hate crimes coming out of Russia, there are riots are in Moscow and
throughout southern Russia in 2010. They were the most race related problems in Russia causing over
5,000 people each to riot. These Russian issues have been brewing for ages. Russia continues Muslim
cheap labor to keep them going and the Muslims will eventually get sick and tired of it. Ethnic tensions
have increased causing a large inconvenience for the Kremlin, Putin has in the past described
himself as a Russian nationalist and last year he has pledged to stay on top the ethnic problems
using on aggressive, provocative and disrespectful migrants who dishonor the customs of the
Russian people. I dont think anyone understands how much of a bad power struggle that we are

facing here in Russia. Everyone wants to be the prime ethnic group and take control of everything.
On the contrary I believe that we should learn to work together as all of one where it doesnt matter
where our roots take us. We should learn to get along as a whole so that we dont have to worry
about any power struggle and grow as nation. The way our human rights and ethnic differences are
set up is that someone is always wrong and it shouldnt be like that. We should be able to work as
one no matter our beliefs or money we make. As you can see we are not growing as one because
were to focused on the present and who is going to be the minority group. We say we have very little
territorial grievances but in my opinion we are in a constant battle with ourselves. Even the
Americans and westerns believe that we are in a constant trouble because we cant control our own
problems. The kremlin is our place to go but dont you ever wonder it would be like if we grew out of
the kremlin stages in our lives and moved on to more set and stone laws? If we didnt just depend on
one thing to make all judicial decisions here? How much better off do you believe we could be if
there wasnt this one thing thats holding us back as one solid group. We are one of the more
advanced nations and its a joke because we cant even get along long enough to show everyone
what we are truly capable of. In my opinion thats a sucky feeling always being looked down upon
because we are just to lazy to get our act together long enough to grow up. I dont know, maybe Im
just looking to much into it but I believe we are better than how they label us. Possibly you agree but
you might not also, either way is fine with me.

Sincerely your student,

Madeline Filoon