This week I chose to feature the thoughts of a Carthage College student, who decided to remain anonymous, on the importance of intellectual diversity in today's society.

I’d like to begin with a small saying, I feel like that’s the coolest way to go about this; that saying is simple: “Knowledge is Power.” We live in a time with a near unlimited access to information. We have access to the ability to query and inform ourselves on almost any topic imaginable, yet we don’t. With the direct expanse of human knowledge at our disposal, it worries me to see that people I know are running from the idea of learning. We as a people cannot run in our quest to be better, run from ideas and knowledge that frightens us.

In our global world, the more we know about others, their cultures, customs, views, opinions, way of life, and their reasons for doing the things they do, the more we can find common ground, work together and excel. Humanity has changed so much about how we operate in this world. We shifted landscapes and traversed boundless seas, we've alters means of communication, travel and even the very face of society. Yet for all we’ve changed about the world, we’ve clung to not changing ourselves, our means of thinking, understanding, ultimately to isolating ourselves from thoughts and ideas we’d rather not face.

This, I find is anti-beneficial to the growth and evolution of us as a people. We must be open to those things that are foreign and new to us. We must together face the false assumptions and irrational ideals presents. We must sift through the rubbish and find the common factors to help us understand our fellow man, lessen the stereotypes and hatred that is so easily bred through ignorance, and come to the realization that all of us, each and every person in our species, is no more special or no more right than anyone else. While we may have our strengths we also each have our weaknesses, and coming to together in understanding and open communication to learn about each other, without fear of reprisal or misunderstanding, would advance us further and into even greater heights.

I firmly believe that our misunderstanding and reluctance to adapt and grow and expose ourselves to new and diverse information has led to our worldly problem of cultural isolationism. In this global age we cannot shelter ourselves from the fact that there are others whose knowledge holds considerable worth and value, whose adaptation and inclusion would help humanity as a whole. We must see beyond the benefits of a single person, go above ourselves and see the value in regarding the needs of others, and in that space, in that true melting pot, we can mold and shape the future of humans, for all those to come.