Attention: All Gingers of Minnetonka High School!  I have a dream today!  A dream about the future of being Ginger, and a little sun burnt even in October, at our fair school.  I come before all of you today not as a crazed, YouTube superstar yelling about how we really do have souls, but simply a fellow Ginger.  Far too long in our halls have I heard sneers and jeers about someone needing to call the fire department to put out my head, that my soul is of “questionable existence,” or that I really should visit a dermatologist because that one really cute freckle on my left cheek (no, not that one, the other really cute one) could easily become something much worse.  … Okay, maybe that last one is a legitimate concern, and honestly I could always use more sunscreen, but still, it gets old, right?

However, I come with a solution.  What if we all come together, all twenty of us, under one mindset to show that we are people too, and that it is super awkward when you are walking past the main entrance after school and you hear people snickering and saying “Look at that Ginger!” just loud enough for you to hear.  (By the way, if you are reading this, I could totally hear you!)  Anyway, we are a special, very select group of people, and we do not deserve such mockery.  Like everyone else, we deserve to have our generally defining features be accepted and viewed as the recessive treasure our flaming red hair and countless freckles are.

So, here is my proposal: As the world’s most famous Ginger, the Flying Tomato himself, Sean White, did, let us rise above this petty name-calling, and not let others’ words shape our views of ourselves.  Instead of growing bitter, like an over-ripe citrus, and trying to get even, let us show a kindness that we have never been shown.  Let us tell people that it is their choice as to whether they believe they have a soul or not.  Tell how you do not feel compelled to grab a magic marker and play connect-the-dots on their skin.  Say their outfit totally goes with their hair.  So, Gingers, let us rally together and make a beacon for the future even brighter than our hair, but don’t forget the sunscreen.