Opinions are a lot like bathroom breaks; everyone has them, but sometimes there are some that are really good and others that really bad.

Everyone has an opinion on every single thing in the world, ranging from food to music, sports to politics, destinations to mindsets, and so on.

Now, with the climate in this nation, it seems that everyone has an opinion but those opinions are always pushed onto their surroundings.

Politics are a huge opinion based debate that has been around for so long, however a particular opinion that has been adamant in my life is one of how to think about a certain group of people or person.

This is unequivocally wrong, the forcing of opinions on each other becomes a detriment not only to the lives of the people that hear them but also the impact they make on Earth. The choice of forcing an opinion on someone causes them to skew their own point of view from what they hear and not allowing them to experience it for themselves.

The experience of life only comes with the chances that we give it; if our viewpoint already has a skewed perspective then our minds and emotions do not allow us to receive the full impact.

When people force an opinion based around their favorite destination for example and they push people to go, that person goes to this place thinking this is the best place on the face of the Earth.

More clarification, say that I told you that the best place in the world currently is the Grand Canyon. I tell you constantly that the canyons and craters are the most beautiful places that you could ever experience. I continually explain that you would be wrong to think there was a better place to visit. This puts you into a box of how I think, forcing you to think how I think.

Now lets flip it, if that person that is being told that the Grand Canyon is the most amazing place ever then they go but then they visit another place such as Niagara Falls. Then they start to question how someone could think that Niagara Falls is not the most beautiful place on Earth. This would cause them to become frustrated with the thinking of the other person and make them have a negative mindset when that person gives them advice on destinations once again. They would take everything with a grain of salt because they are only seeing a certain point of view from that person every single time.

Now, let us put this perspective into a person’s sense; if a person is consistently giving false and negative information, it leads to thinking that the person of subject is a questionable character. It creates a dynamic mindset in the person being told all of this, how to think about someone.

It gives people a jaded understanding of who someone really is, causing them to not actually make that connection with the person. In reality, the two people could be unified in the most generous way possible, but the only knowledge from the deceitful can destroy the chances of such a thing happening.

This is something that needs to be changed within our world, a change that could eventually lead us back to the reconnection of not only our nation but its people.

If instead, we consistently choose love and understanding over judgment would allow us to see every person for who they are or who they are trying to become. The power of love can break any chain of deceitfulness or destruction.

However, we as people, have to choose that every single day so that we can become whole once again. As a nation, as people, we have chosen sides leaving us with selective hearing. It leaves us with only hearing our side of the story and only allowing us to understand the point of view from the people that agree with us.

Every single day when we wake up, love and joy have to be the first two things that we choose to uphold. When an argument consumes us, instead of firing negativity right back, we have to choose to understand the person and the hurt they are coming from.

Understanding someone allows us to control our emotions and creates a channel of open communication. Then the understanding of a person and their hurt, will seep into us fully allowing us to ‘put ourselves into their shoes’.

A touchy subject that transpired so long ago, but one that needs to be constantly remembered by everyone is the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.

When the planes struck the towers, when the people were willing to jump out of the building, when the firefighters or police officers were risking their lives to save others, and even when people were losing their lives, it changed the narrative.

All the hate and disgust was left at the doorstep that day. Everyone, no matter the race, job title, social classes or personality were joined together in arms to grieve over a nation. This tragedy allowed people to take arms and not care about anything but the mental state of one another.

It seems we have shied away from this, we have chosen to divide once again. We have taken sides, we do not allow ourselves to fully listen to the problems of the people.

We have forgotten that day on Sept. 11. We have forgotten the heartbreak and the loss of our people.

We must never forget that day but also the fact of how powerful the knowledge of one another means so much more than who is in office, who has the better food, which person has a terrible personality, or who should be the face of the next great organization.

This just puts everyone into a box of the same thinking and deprives us of the remembrance of who we all once were the day after that tragic event.

Before I finish, I want to leave you with one thing that has stuck with me. My junior year of high school, I would sit in history and not pay much attention but there was a poster that had a quote that I think everyone should know.

‘Those who do not remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.’

Meaning, if we do not remember what we have gone through as a nation, as people, the tragedies of the past will continually repeat themselves. Be the change and the love you want to see; not the division like so many others.