Things-I-Love Thursday, or My Return to the Soapbox

I absolutely loved the graduation address President Obama gave at Notre Dame a few weeks ago. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwJPOfIQKwA

What I love about this speech is the way that President Obama addresses the need for respect between people of differing opinions. This is something I have been thinking about quite a bit since the last election, an experience that was pretty much a crash course in the fragility of personal relationships as far as I’m concerned.

Last fall I had many thought-provoking conversations and debates with people of differing political persuasions. We talked about what informed our opinions, what we saw for the future of our country, etc. These conversations never resulted in us persuading each other of the truth of our particular political ideology, but they did help us understand more about the other person’s beliefs and we essentially walked away from these conversations agreeing to disagree.

On the flip side, I also experienced many encounters in which I was told that the only reason I was supporting a Democratic presidential candidate was because I was young, uninformed, naïve, brainwashed by Hollywood and the media, etc. I was accused of being just another trendy liberal, a perpetuator of corrupt government, and, my personal favorite, “a Bad Mormon” (um, take that up with James E. Faust when you hit the afterlife, please).

As much as these moments sucked, the ones that were even worse occurred when I too lost my cool- when I found myself getting frustrated with people whose views differed from my own and chalked those views up to ignorance, apathy, or other defects in their character. Not my finest hour.

What I learned from my experience is this: difference of opinion is inevitable. Everyone experiences life in a different way, and therefore everyone views the world differently. Regardless of how opposing our views may be, there is still a way to discuss them without adopting a dismissive attitude or assuming that there can be no legitimate reason for someone to think differently than we do. In the face of controversy and difference of opinion, there is still room for discourse that is respectful and tolerant.

Granted, this mentality does not come naturally to us egotistical humans. There are some things people do that I will never understand, like obsess over Edward Cullen or go on a reality TV show looking for love. Where important issues are concerned, though, I resolve to be more respectful. But only because I am a brainwashed Democrat that does whatever President Obama tells me to do.