Recently in the news, we have had a lot of people speaking out about a variety of issues. Someone was ranting to me about the "uninformed liberals that are taking over the media," the other day and I stopped them right in their tracks. I informed them that being informed is an issue that we have on both sides, not just on one side.

I think an issue that we have in society nowadays is that we blame people with different views than ours to just not be as informed as us. This is in fact not the case, people just have different experiences in their lives that create opinions that are different than other peoples.

Think about it this way, if you are a first-generation American whose parents immigrated from a foreign nation, your opinions would be very different compared to someone who grew up in the US and had all of their family here. It isn't that one is dumber than the other, it is just that they have different experiences who made them who they are.

We as a society need to stop shaming people who have different opinions than ours. All it takes is some respect and the acknowledgment of different viewpoints.

I have seen the youth of our nation debate important topics, and I have seen those debates get heated. I have seen topics ranging from LGBTQ+ rights to topics like increasing funding for schools. These debates can get intensive, but one thing always stays constant, they're consistently respectful with one another.

It doesn't take much to change the hate in our world. All that it requires is a little respect from each of us, and if we can do that, we can bring the kindness back to our world.