Sunday, July 21, 2013

Why Can't We Be Friends?

In the hours of free time we were provided today, I reflected the friendships I have made myself, and those that other people in the program have made with each other. I realize I have the capability to be friends with people who have completely different views and opinions that I do. I started off the day with a little debate with a friend about whether everyone should have the right to own a gun. I thought that in the ideal world, no one should have a gun, not even cops, because then no one should get shot. Of course, it complicates it when even just one person has one because then others also want them to defend themselves. Even still, I don't think that every single person should be able to have a gun in their possession. 

Later, I remembered about two girls in my class who were pretty good friends until they realized their very different views on the economy. They rarely speak to each other anymore. To me, I usually even prefer talking to people with different views than me! I think that debate is the best way to gain knowledge. 

During laser tag in the evening, some people were getting a little competitive. It was friendly competition, though, which was fun. Two boys who were on a team full of girls switched teams because they didn't want to be on our "girl team." Guess who ended up winning? Team Red! The team they switched out of. Of course, it may be because once they switched out it gave us much more motivation to win.

After laser tag, I went out to dinner and ice cream with my friends Ali and Sam. We all talked about feminism, graffiti and a lot of other topics we have learned about in Social Justice. Sam is not in our class, so we explained a lot about it. Later, back at the dorms, there was an issue about whether or not boys and girls can be just friends. Ali and I told the accuser that it was anti-feminist to assume that because a girl often talks to a boy does not mean she is necessarily attracted to him. Why can't they just be friends? 

I think the real question of the day is,  quoted from the band War, "Why can't we be friends?"

I believe if everyone was open to being friendly with everyone, despite their beliefs, the world would be much closer to perfect.

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