In the midst of this constantly politically-driven world, filled with opinionated Facebook posts and immature twitter fights, it’s easy to get resentful and angry towards others. Every person has the right to voice their opinion and have their voice be heard. However, it’s easy to get frustrated when you feel like your voice isn’t being heard or when someone doesn’t agree with your opinions.
It’s easy for political arguments to quickly become personal. It seems nowadays that each political debate hits home for most people. It’s so incredibly difficult to see eye-to-eye with everyone on these political issues. I feel as if these differing opinions are so important. I’ve come to realize that today’s society is now promoting extreme opinions along with inadvertent acceptance. The cold hard truth is, that as long as this world exists, people will never be able to completely agree with one another. With all the differing religions, cultures, and beliefs that exist, it is inevitable that conflict will occur. The important thing to realize is different is good. How incredibly boring would it be if there was nothing different about us? Opinions give people hope. It gives the people something to fight for. We as humans would have never made progress as a society if it hadn’t been for the existence of conflicts. Politics gives everyone the opportunity to fight for themselves.
Although I did just state how important differing opinions are, it’s also important that mutual respect is shown. There is a large difference between being passionate for what you believe in and being flat out disrespectful. Welcome all ideas, even if you don’t agree with them. There is no need to be insulting. No matter what your opinions are on a subject, we are all humans. We are all trying to defend our own beliefs and we all have the right to be respected. Everyone is attempting to be heard, but we end up silencing others while trying to get our own beliefs heard. Listen to what others have to say. I’m not at all saying you have to agree with what they have to say. I’m saying that every voice has the right to be heard. Conflict causes us to intellectually and personally grow.
The point I’m trying to get across is it’s important to have your own unique opinions and you should be able to voice them, but you should never bring someone down for doing the same thing as you, even though their opinion might be different from yours. Diversity is at the very core of our existence. Embrace your differences with others, speak your mind, but don’t forget to give people the respect they deserve. So next time you hear someone express their opinions, don’t jump down their throat. Hear them out and respect their views. You certainly don’t have to agree with them, but you have to understand that they’re fighting for something important to them, just like we all are.
