Prejudices

This presidential election has brought out the worst in us and possibly the best, but that hasn’t surfaced yet.

In my church we learn that we are all one, every one of us. When we look back at the beginning of human origins, supposedly we are the children of an African woman, and so we are all one. How can we look at others with different shades of skin, different shapes of eyes, noses, and mouths, and say we are better than anyone else? We can’t but we can say that we have different ideas of what is right for the world.

Because we all grew up in different circumstances, rich or poor, rural or urban, etc., then we have different outlooks on life and what we want from it.

If we could put ourselves in others’ shoes or lifestyles, we could probably look at life from their point of view, but we react immediately and don’t look at their lifestyle, just their ridiculous point of view.

Even education doesn’t necessarily change people’s viewpoint. It just intensifies what they already believe.

I won’t go so far as to say that we should all agree with every idea that comes across the board or we would be accepting of murder and mayhem. However, we can at least listen to others’ ideas and then explain why we don’t or can’t go along with them without offending their ideas; we can have conversations and truly listen to each other without automatically offending them.

When we’re with friends of like convictions, then we can discuss our positions on current affairs and remain positive about how we feel without condemning others with opposing feelings.

We don’t have to be doormats, but we don’t have to be offensive either. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone agreed with each other, as long as they were my ideas. But since that’s not possible, let’s be civilized and agree to disagree. Let’s stop all the ranting and raving, fighting over territories, over religious believers, and all the other nonsense that starts small and ends up in war and hate.