America: the land of the free, if you believe like me. With this being an election year, people have decided to temporarily take an interest in the political game. If you happen to be a part of the social media phenomenon, I’m sure you’ve noticed this, too. If you haven’t seen posts by your friends, then consider yourself lucky.
It seems most people I know are extremely set in their ways. Whether they’ve inherited these beliefs from their parents or formed them on their own, they are reluctant to hear others’ opinions.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with standing up for what you believe in, but you have to approach life with an open mind.
I can say with great certainty I have different opinions than most people I know. I was born, raised and still am Jewish. Growing up in a Jewish household, I feel I was brought up to believe in a different manner than most people around me.
 I am in a fraternity in the Deep South. I recognize most people here are going be staunchly conservative.
As I said earlier there is nothing wrong with that. However, when it does become wrong is when someone feels persecuted for their beliefs. For the past two and half years here at college, I have kept quiet about my political and social convictions.
I have felt like I would be seen as a pariah to the preconceived notion as to what a fraternity man should think. For the most part, this has held fairly true.
About a month ago, I tweeted about the news coverage of the embassy attack in Libya. Specifically, I said “Interesting to see how @CNN is reporting on the attack in Libya, while @FoxNews is taking this as yet another chance to bash Obama.”
From my experience, just saying that should not label me as a liberal, right? Apparently I was wrong, because I’ve been called a “dirty liberal” for that tweet. I would like to set the record straight here. I am not a liberal. I am also not a conservative.
To quote a man who has been persecuted in the past 11 years, Feisal Abdul Rauf said “The real battlefront is between the moderates of all faith traditions against the extremists of all faith traditions.”
In my opinion, this could not be a truer statement. I have the same aversion for radical Christians that I have for the radical Muslims who perpetrated those terrible attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
This past week I was on a recruiting trip with the Mississippi State University Wind Ensemble.
For the first time, I was able to have a political argument in which I did not feel the need to constantly be looking for the exit, out of fear I was about to be punched.
We all took our turns giving input and listening to the other viewpoints that were presented. There was no hostility toward anyone in our group.
I think it was the lack of animosity that bothered me. It stirred something inside of me. I realized what I was used to, this antipathy for ideals different than one’s own, is wholeheartedly wrong. Call me corny, but I believe our founding fathers envisioned a country where you would be free to believe as you please.
Everyone has his or her separate viewpoints. If you have a very conservative or liberal stance, I am in no way asking you to change.
All I ask of you is to be at least the slightest bit open-minded. Yes, you have a stance on an issue and you feel strongly about it. But what you need to realize is you are not the only one who has a belief on that issue.
You should realize there are a lot of people in this world, and just like you, have reasons behind the things they believe. Whether their reasons are moral, religious or simply because they feel like it, people believe differently than you do.