With all of the controversy going on in today’s world, people are bound to have disagreements.
There’s abortion, taxes, marijuana, same-sex marriage, religion, political views and many more issues teenagers enjoy discussing.
While it may be good for teenagers to get involved and be educated, there is a certain point where enough is enough.
We seem to get so defensive about these issues — wheth-
er we are for or against them, it’s a big deal in our minds. We create this mind-set where everything controversial that comes up in a conversation is either an argument or a
chance to push our opinions onto someone else.
Yes, deciding how you want to live your life and creating
your own opinions is a part of growing up. However, I also think there is a way to go about it
without being defensive or offensive when discussing these controversial topics.
I’ll be the first to admit, keeping an open mind is hard. You have your opinions and that’s that — no one can change your mind.
But there is a difference between making your opinions count and just complaining.
Just this month during the election, a riot of about 400 college students against the re-election of President Barack Obama broke out at the University of Mississippi.
While some students just stated political arguments, oth- ers chanted racial slurs and profanities.
Now, that is going overboard.
In a way, I think the students were just trying to prove a point rather than trying to change anything.
We teenagers do this in our everyday lives.
In one minute, a normal conversation can turn into World War III.
It comes to the point where we get into actual fights with our friends over these wide-scale controversies — is it really worth it?
Things are constantly changing around the world and always will.
Recently, marijuana became legal in the state of Colo- rado.
People have different views about it and everything else.
Arguing won’t change anything. Nothing except our tempers.
It’s important to remember that keeping an open mind can make you see things in a way you never expected to see them before.
There’s abortion, taxes, marijuana, same-sex marriage, religion, political views and many more issues teenagers enjoy discussing.
While it may be good for teenagers to get involved and be educated, there is a certain point where enough is enough.
We seem to get so defensive about these issues — wheth-
er we are for or against them, it’s a big deal in our minds. We create this mind-set where everything controversial that comes up in a conversation is either an argument or a
chance to push our opinions onto someone else.
Yes, deciding how you want to live your life and creating
your own opinions is a part of growing up. However, I also think there is a way to go about it
without being defensive or offensive when discussing these controversial topics.
I’ll be the first to admit, keeping an open mind is hard. You have your opinions and that’s that — no one can change your mind.
But there is a difference between making your opinions count and just complaining.
Just this month during the election, a riot of about 400 college students against the re-election of President Barack Obama broke out at the University of Mississippi.
While some students just stated political arguments, oth- ers chanted racial slurs and profanities.
Now, that is going overboard.
In a way, I think the students were just trying to prove a point rather than trying to change anything.
We teenagers do this in our everyday lives.
In one minute, a normal conversation can turn into World War III.
It comes to the point where we get into actual fights with our friends over these wide-scale controversies — is it really worth it?
Things are constantly changing around the world and always will.
Recently, marijuana became legal in the state of Colo- rado.
People have different views about it and everything else.
Arguing won’t change anything. Nothing except our tempers.
It’s important to remember that keeping an open mind can make you see things in a way you never expected to see them before.
