equal at 2am

If everyone has to be right all the time, can we ever have equality? I can’t disagree with certain ideas without being labeled something mean. As a Catholic, I don’t support abortion. It’s not because I hate women. It’s because I believe that life begins at conception, so that baby is a human being entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But I don’t often get to mention that part.

Respect for a different way of thinking, even if you don’t agree, is how we can achieve equality. Agreement is optional. Being able to exchange ideas peacefully and respectfully without agreeing puts value on people and less on the ideology. Protests that result in property destruction and assault is not how people will achieve equality. The people who believe that it’s ok to destroy property, or that the anger of those protests (ex. Berkeley) is ‘righteous’ pay lip-service to equality. They are after domination.

Having respect for other people and being able to accept a loss are the two missing components for equality, in my opinion. This is what I mean by accepting a loss.

If I don’t study or work as hard or interview as well as someone else, I don’t get the good grade, the promotion or the job. That’s fair. Adding points on tests for ‘diversity’ sake or requiring quotas is not.

Adding points to tests and requiring diversity quotas was a necessary thing not too long ago. But, to borrow a quote from one of my favorite stories, ‘the world has moved on’. Giving preference to one group of people creates resentment in another, particularly if it’s forced. Changing peoples hearts and minds takes longer, but it yields true change.

Talk about everything. Let nothing be off limits. And listen before you respond. The times when we should listen are the times when we feel like name calling or yelling. For example,

I’m very blessed to have wonderful people for friends. I don’t have many friends, but the ones I have are wonderful. We don’t agree on major issues like abortion. But they ask why I think or believe certain things, they listen to me and I listen to them. Then we go about our business because we respect each other.

It’s possible to respect people you don’t know, people you don’t like, people on the other side etc…

Another example, I personally thought and think that kneeling during the National Anthem is rude and disrespectful. A friend of mine had no issue at all. We were both on very different sides of it. While we were talking about it, my opinion shifted slightly. I understood what the players were trying to accomplish. He understood that I believed there are better ways to accomplish the same goal. We have very different opinions on the matter, but we didn’t devolve into name calling. We don’t hate each other because we’re on opposite sides.

It’s ok to think differently.

It’s ok.

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