I had a column written for this week about how I spent my weekend at camp. It was a great weekend. I lead some teambuilding for a sorority group from UNK. I helped some teens develop their leadership skills and styles. I had a fantastic time. I’m going back this weekend for some Halloween fun.

As much as I love sharing the camp world with the rest of the world, I had to take a moment here to share something a little bit different.

I’ll relate it back to camp. I always do.

I’m a person with some very strong opinions of my own. I don’t like the Keystone XL Pipeline. I don’t think we should shut down Planned Parenthood. I don’t think we should change the Second Amendment.

I’m allowed to have these opinions. I’m even allowed to share these opinions because we all have freedom of speech here.

I’m also a pretty accepting person. If you have a different opinion than I do, that’s fine. I’d love to share my opinion and why I believe what I believe, then I’ll listen to why you believe what you believe, then we can talk about it. Sounds pretty commonplace, right? Like something most humans do, right?

I was recently astounded by the sheer number of people who have a distinctly different viewpoint. There are a lot of things I don’t mind, a large assortment of things I have a lot of patience for. One thing I absolutely can’t stand is the kind of intolerance it takes for people to hear an opinion that differs from their own, then turn their back to that opinion as if it doesn’t exist.

You can have a different opinion than me. But the fact that I disagree doesn’t make your opinion any less valid. And I expect the same kind of respect and consideration from anyone else.

In the past 24 hours I have heard, been involved in or seen no less than five conversations that went something like this:

“You know, I think maybe we should take guns away from everyone.”

“Well, I think if we take guns away from everyone, the only people left with guns will be the bad guys. I think it’ll take a lot more steps, but I’m interested in hearing what you think those steps are.”

“Good God, what is wrong with you? How can we even be friends? You are the most inconsiderate, pig-headed person I know. You’re such a moron.”

Well.

That’s an unfortunate opinion.

I also feel that people use “I’m offended” as an excuse to not discuss the problem. So you’re offended. Cool. You’re allowed to be offended, but does that mean we can’t talk about how to solve the problem?

More often than not, I find myself asking, what is wrong with this world?

I think that’s one of the things I enjoy most about camp. I don’t have to worry about someone blindsiding me about my opinion. I can have my opinion, I can share it, you can share your opinion and we can discuss it like people.
Because we are people.

Right?