Across the Aisle
Taylor on her way to a high school debate!
When I was in 8th grade I had a teacher I cared about deeply. He was my history teacher, and he was a proud Republican (as most of us were in my small town). He was also active in the military. While he was my teacher he was asked to return to battle in the Middle East. I was devastated.
For the first time, I wondered do I really believe in this war, and… am I really a Republican?
Fast forward to high school. I entered the debate team. You were given about 20 minutes to prepare both sides of an argument. The judge would flip a coin to determine what side you’d fight and away you went. I started to realize there were valid arguments on both sides of most topics people disagreed on.
Meanwhile, I had a new, beloved teacher who taught with a conservative conviction. I started to realize that I disagreed with most things he said, and he entertained my argumentative spirit when I’d debate him on political ideas. That’s how I began to learn what I believed in and what I didn’t.
By the end of high school I’d cast my first vote for Barack Obama. I knew that I thought about the world differently than most of my peers and mentors.
Fast forward to college, when I started my freshman year at The University of Colorado (which is, by far, the most liberal university in the state). In comparison to my new peers, I was conservative. I didn’t recycle. I still said inappropriate things that I didn’t understand were insensitive. I was still registered as an independent.
People started to call me out (in a kind way) when I said the wrong things. For instance, I remember starting a sentence with, “Well, my gay friend Sawyer…”
My peer asked me why it was necessary to indicate his sexual identity? Was the story about the fact that he was gay? No. Did I start sentences about straight people with, “Well, my friend Taylor who likes to have sex with men…” No. What did a person’s sexuality have to do with anything, and why was I broadcasting it to the world? I didn’t know better. Now I do.
Every day I was exposed to new perspectives and ways of being in the world. It was immersion therapy. It opened my eyes to the fact that there are lots of topics that I need to learn more about, and that my ideas about the world should ALWAYS be evolving and growing.
As the Foreward podcast has made its way out into the world, I’ve started having conversations with people on both sides of the aisle about gun violence, and you’d be amazed what an open minded conversation can accomplish. Republicans and Democrats both want their children to be safe in schools. We want to feel safe walking into a movie theater, a festival, or a church. We all have that in common.
There’s a reason we haven’t solved this particular issue, and I believe that’s because we won’t start brainstorming creative solutions together. No responsible gun owner wants guns in the hands of violent people who have obtained them illegally.
Today is inauguration day. It’s a new opportunity to start fresh and aim for big change in our country. We can do that with healthy debate. We can ask people we disagree with to “tell us more” in a non-judgmental way, so that we can learn from each other.
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting impatient with a few issues in this country. Can we make this the presidency where we change them? It’s about time.