Blog 2-- Lisa Melchiorre

Three things that Strak points out are that “not all issues have two equal sides”, “an opinion is a valuable resource”, and you should speak up and give your opinion. I believe that all of these points can help counteract polarization in America, because we know just by writing different argument papers that there aren’t always just two sides to a problem. Also opinions of others should be taken into consideration, but should also be treated just as opinions and not warped into facts. Hearing an opinion that they believe to be a fact and it creates conflict between individuals and/or communities can upset people. Also stating your opinion about any topic that you feel strongly about will allow others to know where you stand and hopefully just respect it. It seems at times there are people who are looking to start an argument and they will find any type of means to do so. I know that when I become agitated with someone I sometimes just look for something that they do wrong so I can criticize them, which usually creates a conflict between us that I really don’t want in the end. I think that by taking a step back and looking at all the other sides of an argument people will realize that there is always more than one side of things. It seems like people are too self-caring to realize that everyone can be happy with their own thoughts and ideas, it doesn’t have to be just one way or another.