{"id":20334,"date":"2020-12-02T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20334"},"modified":"2020-12-01T09:49:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T17:49:43","slug":"student-editors-letter-whatever-your-view-on-covid-restrictions-respect-the-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/12\/02\/student-editors-letter-whatever-your-view-on-covid-restrictions-respect-the-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Editor’s Letter: Whatever your view on COVID restrictions, respect the opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s December 1. COVID-19 has been infecting humans for almost a year. In that year it has killed almost 1.5 million people, which is about the population of Calgary. I’m not about to list statistics; I can\u2019t be the only one who is beyond sick of that. Besides, in this age of ultra-information, you can find and skew any statistic you want to meet your opinion. And while that may be a practice that many, including myself, are guilty of, it\u2019s an insult to our own intellects. But it\u2019s also a really important coping mechanism. You can be proud of your coping mechanisms, but don\u2019t make others feel small because of them.<\/p>\n

A woman recently got called out on BC Ferries’ Instagram page for voicing that it was \u201csad\u201d to see people being told to wear masks on the outside deck of the boats. As someone who will happily take any small step I can to get out of this pandemic as fast as we can, my first reaction was along the lines of \u201cWTF?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun College’s Interurban campus during COVID-19 (photo by Greg Pratt\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And it wasn’t just me: people jumped all over her on Instagram, calling her an anti-masker. Her response certainly made my thoughts stop in their tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was both [sic] in communist Czechoslovakia,\u201d she said, \u201cso I choose not to believe and obey everything \u2018the experts\u2019 are propagating.\u201d<\/p>\n

I mean\u2026 fair.<\/p>\n

A person\u2019s viewpoint often depends on things we can\u2019t possibly know anything about unless they choose to volunteer information, as this person did. There\u2019s a chance a person with anti-mask beliefs is just being selfish, but it\u2019s also possible they have very good, solid reasons that are worth listening to; the former tends to be more convenient to believe. Let me get something clear: anyone who reads these weekly letters to students will know that I support anything, be it masks, distancing, or lockdown, to help contain this virus and get us back to a healthier life as quick as possible. But how you react to the opposition is key to maintaining civil human respect, even if it may seem like they\u2019re not deserving of that respect.<\/p>\n

Today, what I pose to you is this: in this post-Trump era where respect has been forgotten about in some social sectors, it\u2019s irrelevant whether or not a person’s views are deserving of our time, how bulletproof their argument is, or what they make us think. We can still give them respect, an ear, and a smile.<\/p>\n

If a person is yelling at you and you remain calm, they will eventually do one of two things: leave, or calm down to meet your energy.<\/p>\n

Be a trailblazer, an empath, a thinker, because those are the people in the world\u2014and at Camosun\u2014who are going to help us get back on track in every needed way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s December 1. COVID-19 has been infecting humans for almost a year. In that year it has killed almost 1.5 million people, which is about the population of Calgary. I’m not about to list statistics; I can\u2019t be the only one who is beyond sick of that. Besides, in this age of ultra-information, you can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-views"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20336,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334\/revisions\/20336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}