I think it goes without saying that in recent years, people have been overly hostile towards others with differing opinions and beliefs from their own, the most obvious example of this being politics. I definitely think that this is more common amongst younger generations, especially because it is easier to attack someone for their beliefs when you’re hiding behind the safety of a screen. I cannot tell you the number of Tweets I’ve seen in the last six or seven months telling you that if you vote for anyone but Bernie Sanders in the primary election, that you are the reason people of lower SES can’t afford healthcare, or you might as well just call yourself a republican, or other things of that nature. To me, this is absolutely maddening. I am so confused by when my generation collectively decided to drop the idea of respect for other people’s beliefs and start attacking someone’s character in its place. It is so important to exercise your right to vote and to read up on the current state of the government, but how can someone possibly vote for a candidate that they personally believe in knowing that if the wrong person were to find out who said candidate is, then they could potentially lose friends. I, personally, am not at all a fan of Donald Trump. But if someone does their research, agrees with his policies and believes him to be the best candidate for presidency, why should they have to pay any sort of price for that?

Amidst all this chaos, I think the country has definitely taken a pause when it comes to politics and the upcoming election. But the hostile and divisive sentiment has continued on, strong as ever. I recently posted a status on Facebook expressing how I was upset by my University’s decision to cancel classes. After all, this is a multifaceted issue, that affects everyone in at least one way. As someone who is endlessly passionate about mental health, this decision shook me to my core. The mass panic causes anxiety, the social distancing and isolation can perpetuate depression, etc. In my post, I did say that I believed this decision to be a little much, and I thought it was getting blown out of proportion. Never once did I say anything at the expense of the people who are vulnerable to COVID-19, and never once did I downplay my privilege in this situation. However with some of the responses I received, one could think that I said something closer to “those at a higher risk of suffering from coronavirus aren’t as important as those who aren’t at risk, and I don’t care that I’m privileged my problems are still the most important”. Obviously that would be a—pardon my language—fucking ridiculous thing to say. I am so grateful for my physical health, and I am so grateful that I do not need to worry about contracting coronavirus as some others may need to. I would never take that privilege for granted, nor would I ever use my privilege to purposefully put anyone else at any sort of disadvantage.

I knew when I posted that status that it was going to be controversial; I opened the post with the words “I know there are varying opinions on this topic”. I had hoped that by saying that, people would understand that I am not trying to invalidate any opinion that isn’t my own. Unfortunately, there were still people who read my post and interpreted what I was saying was that my opinion was the end all be all. People were so unbelievably quick to call me out in the comment section, many of whom were respectful in disagreeing with me, but a number of whom were fairly disrespectful. I am all for respectful disagreement. I think that’s what makes free speech so great. Debating important topics such as this is stimulating intellectually, socially, and in so many other ways. In knowing that people were going to disagree with me, I almost wanted them to vocalize that to me. But there is a difference between respectfully disagreeing with someone, and telling them that they are essentially a privileged asshole whose opinion is objectively wrong and doesn’t matter. I saw a post by someone I really admire regarding this pandemic, and in their post they expressed that they believed this to be our generation’s world war. But the most important distinguishing factor of this war, is that the entire world is fighting against a common enemy. You would think that people would understand that, and refrain from attacking each other because of that. I’m afraid that a good portion of my generation has grown so accustomed to the hostility that it has become second nature to disagree with someone by attacking their character.

Just before spring break, my class had a guest lecturer with the most remarkable story I have ever heard. Austin Hatch graduated from the University of Michigan, but before that, had survived two plane crashes which collectively took the lives of his entire family. When he spoke to our class, he spoke about overcoming adversity, and living life with a purpose. But the thing he spoke about for most of our class period was marriage. He spoke about his wife of only a few years as though she crafted the entire world by hand. It was incredibly touching, and brought me to tears on two separate occasions throughout the class period. I’ve been thinking about his words since, and I’ve been thinking about what it means to invest in a relationship with someone. He told us that his marriage was like a team, his wife was not only his wife, she was his teammate and his best friend. In the marriages that I see the most often, my parents, my grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. I know that this is what it is supposed to be like; this is what love is supposed to look like.

The people who I know love me are the ones who disagree with me in a way that is productive, and comes from a place of understanding. That is what love is supposed to be like. At a time like this, when the world is seemingly changing in an unprecedented manner every single day, why anyone would want to put anything aside from love out into the world is beyond me. We should see this pandemic as a reminder that we are all on the same side. We are all just trying to live in a way that is best for ourselves. Hostility, hatred, disrespect, all of these negative entities that are clearly pretty tempting, are just adding fuel to the fire.