{"id":22162,"date":"2018-11-05T13:22:55","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T18:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=22162"},"modified":"2018-11-06T16:35:30","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T21:35:30","slug":"dwyns-den-polite-political-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/opinion\/2018\/11\/05\/dwyns-den-polite-political-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwyn’s Den: Polite Political Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0One thing I\u2019ve noticed over the past few months is how little most people seem to be able to put themselves in someone else\u2019s shoes when it comes to politics and other differing viewpoints.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was raised to be very open minded and as I grew up developed the opinion that everyone has the right to his or her opinion, even if I totally disagree with said opinion. I think most people these days have this viewpoint, but I also think it\u2019s harder in practice than theory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> This election will be the first one I am eligible to vote in and a big thing I have noticed is people don\u2019t always seem to want to listen to the other side. I notice this a lot in general, as well. People like to voice their opinions and then shut down or defend them with their dying breath.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong, I think you should stand up for what you believe in, but I also think there is value in understanding why other people believe differently. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0I have a very good friend with whom I strongly disagree with on nearly every political topic. We were raised in very different religions, almost opposite ends of the spectrum, disagree on the abortion issue, on marriage, government, you name it and we have probably had a long discussion about it over hot chocolate and tea. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0But these discussions are never disrespectful in any way, and often contain lots of laughter and understanding. We always treat the other person’s opinion as valid and really try to understand why the other holds that opinion. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably one of the most rewarding friendships I have, not because we disagree sometimes, but because we didn\u2019t let that get in the way of an awesome friendship born through a love of music. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0She has never pushed me to change my views, and I have treated her with that same respect. Through this lens of \u00a0\u201clet\u2019s have an honest conversation,\u201d I think I have really grown.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> I think the big thing missing in our country’s ongoing political debates, is genuine respect and understanding. When you have a population of over 300 million people, odds are you’re not going to agree with all of them. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t expect everyone to just go and make friends you disagree with, but I do think there is real value in at least trying to understand someone else\u2019s point of view.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m not saying this will solve all our problems, but I do think as fellow humans on this Earth we owe each other some respect and understanding. I think it\u2019s possible to stand up for what you believe in while doing it respectfully and allowing others to do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cerridwyn Kuykendall<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Managing Editor<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0One thing I\u2019ve noticed over the past few months is how little most people seem to be able to put themselves in someone else\u2019s shoes when it comes to politics and other differing viewpoints. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was raised to be very open minded and as I grew up developed the opinion that everyone has the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":22163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2109,2150],"tags":[2007,2413,1384,2812,1388],"class_list":["post-22162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-world","tag-cerridwyn-kuykendall","tag-dwyns-den","tag-opinion","tag-polite-political-talk","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-5Ls","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download-2.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22162"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22191,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22162\/revisions\/22191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}