A Nation of Opinions

That's what we are, a nation of opinions. You having your's, me having mine and the person down the street having his or hers. There are some out there that argue what a terrible thing this is, but in my mind it's what makes us great and different. People disagree about all kinds of things -where they worship, how they worship, who they support in elections, if they participate in elections, if they salute, stand or sit during a pledge. We agree to disagree about practically everything and we need to celebrate that instead of beating each other up over it.

Yes, the diversity of opinions in our country makes it difficult sometimes and most recently we seem to have become a little less tolerant of each other when we do disagree. That's the real and true danger - the intolerance for each other or the other person's opinion. Of course the real trick is dialogue and listening to each other. We know it can be done.

So as we talk about the big issues, war and peace, poverty and prosperity, life and death, people's right to choose what's best for them, walking in each other's shoes, we have to remember how critical it is to allow and celebrate our differences of opinion. Some of the depression and despair that people may be feeling after an election cycle that is too long, seems to be the result of how intolerant we've become of each other.

We have some choices to make. We can keep arguing, yelling and fighting with each other or we can step back and realize how important our diversity of opinion is and how to protect it. No one needs to back off of their beliefs or their passions. If anything we should all stand strong in our positions. In the end though, let's have some respect for each other and for the exchange of ideas.