We are great, in part, because of the diversity of our people. Their many talents and abilities are what make greatness. We accept and respect the various customs, beliefs and differences among our people.
But no more.
We pay tremendous lip service to the idea of diversity, but we don’t always consider what it means.
In recent years, the talking heads of cable news have called many good American citizens “un-American.”
Their reasoning: These un-Americans protest and think in ways the various talking heads don’t approve of. They label them bigots, elitists, communists and extremists, and worse, their main accusation is generally that these people are hopelessly ignorant.
Westboro Baptist Church came to OU last Friday to protest at Hillel, a Jewish community center near campus. According to their Web site, godhatesfags.com (really), they were under the impression that if the Jewish children weren’t “cloistered;” they would change their ways and convert to Christianity.
The talking heads and Westboro Baptist Church have something in common. They want their opposition to see things their way, claiming it’s only a matter of facts. They blame the dissent on the ignorance of their opposition.
How would it make you feel to hear that, “I honestly believe that if you knew the issues like I know them, you would take my side, you would think like me, you would believe like me, you would act like me, you would be like me. It’s just your ignorance that is holding you back from my enlightened view?”
This is an inconceivably closed-minded and conceited viewpoint.
For those of us who are not omniscient, it would be presumptive for us to assume that if others knew what we know they would side with us.
Still many ignore their personal lack of omniscience and castigate others’ views rather than legitimately consider their viability.
This is the easy way out of a divisive discussion. It is easy to assume people who don’t share our views are ignorant. That we are right and others need to read what we read, then they’ll see the light and think like we think. After all, we are absolutely right.
Instead of celebrating our difference of experience and history, we shun them. We declare others’ knowledge and experiences to be of less importance than our own based on their side of a debate rather than what they actually know and think.
Just because someone fails to share your opinion doesn’t mean they’re wrong. It means they have different experiences, or different information, not necessarily limited information.
I’m not saying each person shouldn’t have an opinion or take a side. Have an opinion, but don’t assume anyone with a different opinion is wrong based on their opinion alone. Listen to that person - you might learn something.
I wonder what issues you’re thinking about while reading this article. While writing this I was thinking specifically of health care reform, the situation in Honduras, Hugo Chavez, immigration, international trade, Israel/Palestine and proselytizing religion, but it truly applies to all polarizing issues.
We have been far too prone to dismiss opposing viewpoints as ignorant. We need to truly listen to the opposition with our minds open; maybe then it wouldn’t sound so crazy.
We have a diverse campus, diverse nation and diverse world; if we listen, we may find there are more than two sides to many of the polarizing issues of this world.
Then we may really have trouble forming an opinion.
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kdbp1213 2 years, 8 months ago
i guess mustafa is playing in left field today.......
eightbitgirl 2 years, 8 months ago
this is a great article, Mr. Avery. Sometimes it takes learning more about someone else's point of view to help you form yours more clearly.
JJanowiak 2 years, 8 months ago
Hey now, don't feed the animals kdbp.
TylerBranson 2 years, 8 months ago
Unfortunately, some people do not deserve to be listened to or included in the full breadth of debate. Some people are so inherently misguided in their worldviews and perceptions that to engage them in any way is merely provoking them to further their antagonistic and violent ideologies. I'm thinking particularly of 9/11 Truthers, Westboro Baptist Church, Terrorists, etc. I like the idea of tolerance, but I draw the line at abhorrent doctrines of hate and violence. They don't deserve anybody's open mind.
mustafa 2 years, 8 months ago
A great idea lets put it to the test by talking about something the Daily has been avoiding like the plague, the murder of a PhD grad student at Yale by a department janitor.
All the talk and speculation about his being interested in her sexuality is based on one assumption: that no one would be so upset over the treatment of lab animals that they kill a human being. This is hardly the reality we all know. Holier-than-thou liberal morality has been whipping up anger and hatred among youth for decades.
It is very believable that this guy became so “passionately” concerned for animal rights that he would explode in rage any act of disrespect. Mostly likely they got into an argument, she got p!ssed off at his stupidity (it happens), and pushed a hot button with a little too much vinegar. A plausible enough scenario that at least deserves to be considered. But no, a bad reflection on the animal rights movement can’t be tolerated so keep the focus on him as sexual predator. It is striking how quickly many of the liberal talking heads are dismiss as” ridiculous” the possibility that he killed her over her treatment of lab animals.
If what I suspect is true it will mark a new dimension in the ongoing record entitled, “Liberalism Can Get You Killed.” Not really accurate in this case since it is meant to apply here to the guy. The pantheon of martyrs in this category includes the students killed at Kent State and three Freedom Riders. Perhaps this category should be called “Liberalism Can Get You into a Hellafa Lot of Trouble.”
mustafa 2 years, 8 months ago
"some people do not deserve to be listened to or included in the full breadth of debate."
So far, the premise of the article has failed the test. Tyler's statement reminds me of the movie "The Last Supper" a group of such open minded liberals decided that the Right just was beyond reasoning with and needed to be exterminated. They then invite to supper a series of people, each representing a different conservative position on the various issues, and then they enjoy subjecting their guests to agonizingly slow deaths. A young woman who objects to abortion on moral grounds was deemed worthy of execution.
Don't forget to view - Ice Cube True to the Game- on You Tube
Ducky 2 years, 8 months ago
Applause all around for a well written, badly needed, common sense article.
As far as I'm concerned, both sides - Left and Right - are 100% GUILTY. Both sides have contributed to the nastiness of the dialogue in contemporary America. I'm guilty of it myself, and so are many of you reading this. The one thing the fudamentalists and extremists on both sides share together is a twisted, irrational, paranoid fear, loathing, and hatred for the other side. It goes both ways, and their only justifications for it - which rings hollow every time - is that 1) the other side does and says worse to my side and deserves to be treated as such or 2) I'm just smarter and better informed, so I can be a pompous a*s.
During the Bush years, we saw ugliness and stupidity from the Left. How many posters did I see of President Bush with a swastika and a Hitler mustache during anti-war protests? Was he not also treated with disrespect by Democrats while adressing Congress? Today, now that President Obama is in office, we see the same irresonsible nastiness from the Right. How many posters have I seen depicting our current President as Karl Marx or Adolf Hitler? Bloggers on both sides are another good example.
Of course, both sides spend a lot of energy pointing down the meaness from the other side and trying to justify how it is okay for their side but somehow not okay for the other side. There is always some excuse to justify being a pr*ck.
I close with two points...
We will NEVER have any possible hope of solving our many problems unless we meet in the middle. This country does not belong to the Left or the Right, and neither side can solve all of our issues. We must find a way to compromise.
Stop using the bad behavior on the other side to justify your own. At the end of the day, you are responsible for what you say and how you say it. If you want a solution to the problem of our lack of civility, look in the mirror. It has to start with individuals taking resonsibility. Nobody ever takes responsibility if you are constantly justifying being a jerk.
Rhology 2 years, 8 months ago
You're right, IF you remember that tolerance and open-mindedness play both ways. This goes for left-wingers AND right-wingers, both views.