“Fact…or Opinion?”

By Cheryl Kelly

(6-17)

I saw a video this morning of a young man speaking at what I believe to have been a community government forum regarding same sex marriage. He was addressing the board advocating for marriage rights for gays and lesbians. Being raised by two women, he was especially well-versed to speak on the subject and he gave such a poignant and elegant speech that it sparked my thoughts and my fingers into action. He was a young 19-year-old, successful young man, well-educated, already owned a small business, and here he stood in front of complete strangers pleading a case for something that is such a personal decision that should never warrant government involvement.

It got me thinking about choice, and the millions of choices that people make every day that have absolutely no effect on anyone else, yet seem to come under the ever watchful eye and sharp, opinionated mouth of others including the government. Anything from religion, to lifestyle, to health decisions…all personal, private decisions that we as humans should have the right to make for ourselves without judgment, and certainly without legal interference. I never understood how some people believe that they have a right to comment on someone else’s life without knowing anything about them. And when the government gets involved, well, that opens up a whole other dangerous can of worms, and an endless invasion into an area they should never be allowed to enter.

I know there are many views out there and everyone has a right to their own opinion, however, let’s remember what an opinion is, shall we? As Oxford Dictionaries would remind everyone, an opinion is “a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge”. There are far too many people out there in the world who have a very blurred distinction between their personal opinion and fact. Just because you view something one way, does not make my opposing view wrong, it just makes it different. And that would be okay, if everyone would just agree to disagree at times instead of battling over who is right and who is wrong.

I think of the thousands of problems we have in this world from hunger, to homelessness, to unlawful persecution, to drug addiction and environmental distress and I think why are we spending precious time and resources on Sally marrying Diane? Who cares? People love who they love, period, and who is anybody to tell those two women, or men, they are wrong for feeling what they feel? And who is anybody to tell them that they don’t have a right to be happy and share this beautiful world together? How pretentious are you that you believe that you have some right to interfere? What effect does this union have on you and yours? None. We have become a society of nosy neighbors who can’t seem to get our faces out of other people’s windows long enough to live our own lives. And as a working, taxpaying individual let me tell you how much it infuriates me knowing that we are paying for our governments, at any level, to be weighing in and making decisions on this subject instead of the monumental laundry list of issues they could be working on that would actually benefit society.

I think somewhere along the line our society has lost our individuality. We have become so intolerant and at times paranoid about anything that is the slightest different from our own way of life. ‘Different’ has taken on a negative connotation, and it is far from negative. It is what makes humans, human. It is what separates us from all other forms of existence. Why are we not embracing the opportunity to learn from others who see things another way? For me, it is refreshing to be challenged to think and to be reminded that there are other ways to look at and experience the world. Our ability to think, feel, and form opinions cannot be overstated! Freedom to make our own decisions and act on them without fear of oppression is what this country was built upon and that, my friends, is a fact, not opinion.