Recently I was involved in a heated debate about the very controversial issue ofabortion. During it a girl who was pro-choice said that all people who choose thepro-life stance are uneducated. In response, a pro-life girl said that abortionis evil and anyone who would have one, or support it, is also evil. As I satthere and listened to this debate, it made me very upset. These girls who barelyknew each other were judging the character of the other by their stance on anissue. This whole episode made me wonder who gives anyone the right to judgeanyone else's beliefs as right or wrong. We need to learn to dispute people'sopinions and not judge their character.

I feel strongly that in societytoday people are too quick to judge others. One example of this is when schoolchildren label their peers as dorks, nerds, preps or headbangers as judged bytheir report card, their clothes or their taste in music, not by the person thatthey are inside.

Many people seem to think that their standards, theirmorals and their beliefs are the only correct ones and often they impose theseonto others who are not yet sure of what they feel. I think that one of the bestqualities of America is its diversity. Part of achieving this is the freedom weas Americans have to hold strong to what we believe and to voice our beliefs. Butnowhere are we given the right push our beliefs on others or to judge othersbased on what they believe. We will all be judged eventually and until then wewill never really know if we are right and others are wrong orvice-versa.