A few nights ago, I had the misfortune of being in a situation that involved the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department. I won't go into details, but as the night wore down I wound up having a bit of a debate with one of the deputies at the scene that left me sad and disgusted. Maybe it's just me, but I will never understand people who are so set in their views that they can't even consider the opinions of others. I'll admit, I'm pretty tough to sway when it comes to my ideas on things, but I have the utmost respect for people who can at least make me think.
     I haven't traveled nearly as much as I would have liked to at this point in my life, but I relish every chance I get to do so. I've been enough places and interacted with enough people that I've come to the conclusion that people are people, no matter what their race, nationality, religion, or economic standing may be. Sure, there are quite a few bad ones, but most are just trying to get by the best they can. This is why I've come to hate things like racism, nationalism, homophobia, sexism, and xenophobia so much. It's also why I've become increasingly critical and intolerant of laws designed to keep people poor and fighting among themselves.
     I think it would do the vast majority of the population some good to let their guard down and stop building walls and fences between each other, maybe try and think of the ways other people are affected by the state of the world these days. Leave our little bubbles we live in and go visit another place and see how other people get by, even if it's just the next town over for a day. Maybe we should all try and strike up a conversation with a person from another country instead of looking at them and calling them "terrorist" or "illegal."
     Perhaps if we all go out and try these things, try walking in other people's shoes, we'll all wake up and start to care where our world is going. Maybe we'll actually take the time to learn about the terrible things being done by the ones we elect to lead us, so that when the next election comes, we'll care enough to turn off our televisions for a little while and go out and get these people out of the offices they don't deserve. I know trying to explain this to a cop, who's probably never left his home town, was completely pointless. I just hope other people aren't quite so ignorant.