Have you ever been to a football game? Any level, high school, college, NFL? Usually you’ll find people dressed in paint, wearing bright colors, cheering for the team they love. We love teams in America, so much they make us dumb.
At a game, we cheer when referees make calls that help our team. We boo and shout when they make calls that hurt us, even if the call is totally right and we know it. We do the same with our politics.
You probably identify with a political party, have a way you typically vote and that is that, but I wonder, are we so stuck in a team led cycle that we vote blindly for people who are the same party as us?
Or maybe we argue, defending a point our party agrees with, simply because they are our party, even when what we are arguing makes no sense.
We have a tendency to pick a “team” or party and defend them until we can no more. We are Republican so we buy a “Make America Great Again” hat or we are Democrat and we put a sticker with a letter ‘H’ on our car, and we don’t associate with the other until it’s time to yell how we are right and they are wrong, when often, we don’t even understand half the things we are yelling about.
We have become distracted so much by winning that we ultimately end up losing by further dividing people. We have created little sections for people to exist within and everyone has to stay in their section. Now we have stopped encouraging thought and communication and we don’t move any further forward.
We need to learn how to communicate. We can’t talk over someone with opposing views from us, we can’t call them crude names and we can’t keep thinking as far as political parties. We need to learn that sometimes, people will disagree and you can’t change their minds. We have to respect others opinions and beliefs.
So start by first, educating yourself. Learn about the stuff people are fighting for, the things that are being talked about amongst Congress, what matters in your community. Politics isn’t just national, its right around the corner.
Once you actually know and understand what and why you believe the things you do, then it makes sense to talk about it. Why have a discussion about something you know nothing about?
Sometimes things sound great, but they just aren’t realistic. You may find you change your mind when exposed to new ideas, after approaching them with an open mind.
We need to put time and education into who we defend. It is silly to just defend your team senselessly, with no reason or understanding. It’s important we remember, this isn’t football, it’s our future. It’s time to do a little more listening, and a whole lot less talking.
Kelsey Fitzpatrick
Staff Writer