Stop respecting your neighbor.

Not something you hear very often, but something you SEE more than often. You observe those around you disrespecting each other on a daily basis due to race, political view, religion, beliefs, gender, lifestyle, and the list goes on and on. For some reason, we as a culture, have found it extremely acceptable to disrespect our neighbors simply because they are a mirrored image of us.

We disrespect people who support Trump OR we disrespect people who support Hillary Clinton.

We disrespect people who support gay marriage and disrespect those who oppose it.

We disrespect people who are Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Atheist, or none of the above.

We disrespect immigrants.

We disrespect people who are pro-choice or against abortions.

We disrespect those who have disabilities.

We disrespect those who are homeless or jobless.

We disrespect people who choose to be vegetarian due to animal rights.

We disrespect people who watch what they eat and spend all of their time in the gym.

We disrespect people who are overweight or underweight.

We disrespect people who have power over us.

We disrespect people who don't like the same foods as us.

We disrespect people who don't understand our views.

We disrespect people who don't agree with us.

We disrespect the people around us.

We disrespect our friends, our family, and ourselves.

Now, what does the word disrespect even mean you might ask? The act of disrespecting someone entails insulting, thinking less of, acting rude towards, dehumanizing, and belittling him or her before knowing them as a person. But most importantly to disrespect someone means we are valuing hatred more than we are valuing love.

Chances are, you fall somewhere on this list of people we disrespect on the daily basis. The problem isn’t that we have differences; the problem is that we find it as an avenue to dishonor each other. Who said that the human population would be all similar in likes and dislikes? No one ever said we would agree with everyone on everything. We were not meant to be clones. We were not put on this earth to merely become a follower in a group of people who act, think, and talk alike.

However, that is the beauty of who we are as people. We are all SO incredibly different–in the things we stand for, in the way we say the world, in the way we live our lives. This does NOT give us the right to disrespect our neighbors. Half of the time we don't even know where these people's views are coming from, so why do we jump to judge? Learn from them, honor them, and understand where they are coming from.

Why do we continue to live in a world full of hate and disrespect? This is so because our “leaders” have made it alright for such behavior, and shown it in the most explicit ways. We need to be the leaders in this messed up culture and show that respecting each other is the only way we will move forward.

Think about it, the majority of your friends and family are somewhere on this list. The majority of the people you love so dearly have characteristics that you don’t support--but does that change the fact that you love them unconditionally? Be reasonable and understand before you decide to disrespect and belittle someone. Just because you disagree with someone does not give you the permission to belittle them as a human being, so calm down.

Be smart and make the active decision to love and comprehend before acting on your initial instinct to disrespect.

Think about your actions before you execute them, and don’t let this world continue on with its ways.