Learn to love and support one another, not hate

It’s been almost 300 days of complete chaos. There’s no other way to describe the majority of 2020; famous loved ones have passed, a global pandemic has destroyed our mental and physical health, friends and family members are being quarantined on a daily basis, activities are being postponed, changed, or canceled, and to top it off it was an election year. Everyone has gone through most of the same, awful stuff this year, and some have even experienced it at much worse levels. Now more than ever, citizens need to unite with their differences, and learn to love and support each other.
Especially with this election and the power of social media, there has been so much hate and negativity. People have been polarizing on Instagram saying they won’t be friends with people who don’t match their views, “cleaning out” their followers on social media of people who don’t believe the same things as them, and reposting hateful things. None of this should be an acceptable thing to do. We need everyone’s beliefs and viewpoints to make the country and the world work in the best way possible; imagine how boring and awful the world would be if everybody agreed with each other and nobody ever questioned someone’s ideas. This country needs to unite, BECAUSE of our differences, not hate on each other for them.
In 2020, there have been a lot of things that are out of our control. We cannot snap our fingers and make the pandemic go away or bring back the many lives lost this year, but what we can do is control our actions. We can choose to build each other up during these tough times, rather than bring each other down. We can choose to smile through our masks and brighten people’s days. We can choose to check on our friends and classmates and see how they’re doing. All these little things can make a huge difference within the lives around you.
It doesn’t matter if the other people around you follow a different religion, like a different political party, or have different traditions/customs than you do; they still are just like you and me. Everyone deserves to be treated with love, kindness, and respect. Even if you dislike a certain part of someone, or everything about them, they still deserve to be treated with respect. Especially this year, Americans need to be reminded about this. Spreading hate and arguing is NOT the way to get somebody to agree with you. You have to respect and love the people around you.
The next time you disagree with somebody on a topic, try having the mindset of wanting to learn and listen to their perspective, instead of having the “I’m right, they’re wrong” attitude. After they say their points, then you can say something like you disagree, but respect their opinion. Then you can explain why you disagree in a much friendlier, mature way and have a good discussion about it, rather than hiding behind the screen and unfollowing them. If everybody respectively compared viewpoints when there was conflict, people would be so much more supporting and loving toward one another.
Life will not get any better if we keep belittling others’ opinions and feelings. The divided states of America need to become the United States of America again and go back to getting things accomplished. The only way this will happen though, is if you choose to love and respect those around you not in spite of their differences, but because of their differences.