About a month ago gay marriage was legalized and the Confederate flag was banned. Both of these events were the subject of many discussions and arguments where a lot of different, heated opinions were floating around.

Most wanted their opinion, and only their opinion, to be heard and most were unwilling to listen to opposite points of view. Some people who accepted the changes claimed that they themselves were open-minded and those that did not accept the changes needed to be less close-minded.

After personally hearing multiple arguments end in neither person wanting to hear what the other person had to say, but claiming that they were "open-minded," I decided to look up the definition.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Open-minded: (adj.) willingness to consider different ideas or opinions

To re-iterate this definition:

The willingness(which means to not only listen, but to want to listen) to consider (to think carefully and take time to understand) different ideas or opinions (an opinion or idea that is at odds with what you believe).

So those claiming they are open-minded, but refusing to even listen to or understand the other side of the argument are not truly open-minded. This can happen on either side of an argument - both those who do not support the change and those who do support the change can be close-minded.

Next time you have a discussion with someone about a topic you disagree on, listen to the other side first and try to understand where they are coming from, instead of hypocritically calling each other names like "ignorant" and "close-minded."

In the words of Mark W. Perrett, "If you don't go through life with an open mind, you will find a lot of closed doors."