During my junior english class a debate was encouraged between two of my peers. One of them was my friend Sam. Sam was and still is a very liberal democrat and we share many beliefs. He was arguing with another classmate Greg. Greg was very conservative and was involved with the republican party. They were debating several controversial issues like abortion and planned parenthood as well as health care reform. The discussion became very heated and resulted in yelling by the end of the class. Sam was extremely frustrated with Greg and vice versa. Even though I agreed with Sam's ideas I didn't agree with the comments he made after class. Sam was complaining about how Greg didn't even listen to his ideas and how Greg was disrespectful. However Sam then went on to state the Greg's opinions were "pointless" and " irrelevant". This really affected me, even though I agreed with Sam's ideas I thought that he was being incredibly hypocritical. Here he was
complaining about how someone he disagreed with was disrespectful but he turned around and did the exact same thing. You may not agree with certain people's ideas or beliefs but you should always respect them and at least listen to them. The world wasn't made in black and white. There are always gray areas and it would do the world some good to remember that.
* names have been changed
Maddie Dellinger