Labels Can be Divisive

I just read a post from Sparks from a Combustible Mind that I found very interesting, and want to share it with you – and I want to express some of my thoughts.

She quoted from an article posted by another blogger,The Happy Quitter explaining Liberal vs Conservative, according to the StudentNewsDaily.com. In reading these descriptions, I confirmed what I have believed for quite some time: I am neither Liberal nor Conservative. My beliefs vary, and range between both “sides”.

That article further confirmed, for me, that we are far too quick to “label” ourselves and others – we are far too quick to say “well, he is a Liberal/Conservative, after all”, and in the extremes of our emotions, fire off mean, disrespectful comments about the beliefs and, too often, moral character of that Lefty/Righty person. I believe the fact that we now have a president who feels doing the same is okay, that he has the right to be mean, disrespectful, extreme, and to do it publicly, only encourages this behavior. This distresses me – in my opinion, those who wish to govern their country should meet a higher moral standard, should act as role models, should put country before personal opinions, and should sometimes just keep their mouths shut. Perhaps follow the old “if you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all” credo. After all, declining to comment, or preferring not to comment, can speak volumes.

Read the article, think about it – perhaps we have more in common than we thought. Remember it’s okay to disagree, we have that freedom, a hard-fought for freedom, and we should exercise it. But I believe we should exercise it in a more respectful, tolerant way than is being done by this society right now. I think we will not get along, we will not reduce the violent responses that are set off by anger, until we relearn tolerance, forgiveness, freedom. Labeling does not contribute to any of those.