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“Connected to Everything” is a story written by Jennifer Greene and published in the Fall 2009 issue of Teaching Tolerance. This story is adapted from a traditional tale of the Bitterroot Salish, a Native American tribe in Montana.

Although carefully planned at twilight so all animals can attend, things go terribly wrong during this walkabout. The group creates such a terrible hullabaloo that Namarrkun, the lightning man, is forced to show his strength.

This photograph from the Associated Press shows Martin Luther King Jr. in a crowd of people at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

The iconic poster was designed by J. Howard Miller during World War II for Westinghouse Electric. In recent decades, the image has gained wide popularity as an emblem for feminism and various other political and social movements.

Using repetition, similes and metaphors, this poem speaks of overcoming oppression—specifically slavery—with poise and pride. Despite all of the hardships, the speaker emphasizes a sense of confidence and hope.

This story speaks of the importance of giving. When hard times fall on his land, Buddha reaches out to the wealthy, asking them to help feed the poor. The rich people grumble and refuse until a young, well-to-do girl steps forward and offers to take her bowl from house-to-house to be filled for those less fortunate than herself. Supriya succeeds and many in the land fill her bowl and their own to give to the poor.

In this tale, a blind man teaches a hunter to see things in a different light and learn from his mistakes.

Brother Pedro meets Juan on a dusty road and sees that the man is very troubled. The priest helps Juan secure medicine for his sick wife. After many years, a prosperous and happy Juan returns to Brother Pedro to help him, yet it is Pedro who shows Juan another miracle.

Doreen Rappaport tells the story of a young Suzie King Taylor and her brother who attended a secret school for black children in Georgia in the mid-1800s. Later on, Taylor would become the first black woman to teach openly in a freedmen's school.

Through an extended metaphor, Maya Angelou—who has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States—uses a caged bird and a free bird to juxtapose the oppressed and the free.