My Journey With Health And Fitness – We Can Have Different Opinions

Ok, I am really going off topic today but I feel I need to. Lately on social media (especially X) I have been seeing all of these absolutely hateful posts. All of them are when a responder disagrees with the original poster. I literally have cried at some of the awful words that are being said simply because people have different political opinions. Now don’t get me wrong, I know many of the people responding are extremists (both in the US and Canada) but what I don’t understand is how we got to the point as a society that this is ok. In my world it is not.

When my husband and I first met we had very different political beliefs, he was way right of center while I was a bit left of center (ok, now I am further left but that is a different story). That did not stop us from falling in love and getting married (and about to celebrate our 31st anniversary). Despite our differences we did not feel the need to insult or criticize each other for when we supported different political parties. As the years have gone by and my husband watched the work I did trying to make the world a better place, he slowly changed his political beliefs. I admit he is not exactly where I am now but certainly he has changed his view of politics.

We have a very eclectic group of friends in Canada, the USA and here in Mexico. Many of us share the same ideas as to who we want to lead our countries but not all. And yet, we are all friends who don’t find the need to disparage each other because of what political party we support. Some of those friends are on the exact opposite of the political spectrum than we are but there is a simple solution to it, we don’t talk politics when we gather, rather we just enjoy spending time together, it really is that simple. If we want to talk politics (and trust me my husband doesn’t) we have an awesome group of friends at home that are like minded that are more than willing to have that discussion with us.

One of our friends at home spent many years in our Provincial government in the opposite party to the one I support. Yet funny, not once in our political discussions did we ever feel the need to call each other names, we just had a friendly debate. Then there was my Uncle with whom every Christmas Eve brunch at his place I would get into a very rousing (and sometimes loud) political debate. Despite the fact we had nothing in common in terms of politics it was always in good fun especially hearing all of the extended family groan as soon as we got into it. As a matter of fact, that is what I miss most since he has passed.

So we can have different opinions and still be friends. Even if we aren’t friends, we can have different opinions and still be respectful, it is not that difficult if you want to be in a world where we are all allowed the freedom to have our own opinions, that is what my Dad as a teenage risked his life fighting in a war for us to have.

On a final note, I am disgusted at the people who are throwing around the slur, retard. Here’s the definition of that word per the Cambridge dictionary ‘a word for a person with a learning disability which was used by doctors in the past but is now extremely offensive’. Anyone using that horrible slur needs learn how to be a decent human being.