We’re selfish enough to think the world revolves around us. My opinion is right and true, and I’m too thick-headed or blind or smart to even consider the other possibilities. I have the truth, and my truth is the only way it is. Unfortunately, the world can be more complicated than that. Not everything is black and white.

There are multiple sides to every issue, but we’re so focused on only seeing it our way. Then we accuse everyone else of being misled and misinformed, when we’re just as confused. We see only the sides of the issue that help our cause, we taint what we say and we hear what we want. Then we claim the other side is disillusioned, when in reality, we’re all led astray. None of us really knows what’s going on.

The world is too complicated to be boiled down to a protest poster. It’s not all about blood for oil, and it’s not all about liberating Iraq. We do a disservice to our brothers when refuse to consider the multifaceted world we live in.

Debate becomes impossible when we refuse to be open-minded. We’re too stubborn to admit that maybe we’re wrong, maybe we’re being misled, maybe we don’t know it all. Sometimes it’s just easier to be stubborn and angry and carry your heart on your sleeve. Coming up with real solutions and real compromise and real results is so much harder. It’s just easier to be a voice of dissent, and opt out–or to just go along with the crowd and wear your ribbon like everyone else. Either way we’re refusing to acknowledge that things are more complicated. There’s a space in the middle. It’s not any more right or wrong, it just acknowledges so much more. I’m certainly not there, but I wish I could be.