Greetings and Salutations

Hello and welcome to the opinions section. My name is Elisha and I will be your guide. I’vebeen opinions editor here at the Express for just a couple weeks now and I think I’m doingjust swell so far. I have yet to receive my first piece of hate mail and nothing hasspontaneously combusted (yet).A (very) brief intro to me- I am right on the cusp of turning 21 (birthday presents can be sentto the Express HQ) and entering my penultimate year of the Law degree here in UCC.Hobbies include: writing (duh!), art, hiking, dancing, telling people I do Law, dismantling thepatriarchy and being right all the time (that last one, however, does get quite exhausting).Formalities aside, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to submit to me your sweetsweet opinions, however scathing they may be. I want to hear your opinion on anything(seriously anything at all): the climate crisis, celebrity couplings, ice cream flavours,international relations or the colour of your mam’s new car. If you have an opinion on it, Iwill publish it!In this day and age, your opinion is one of the most valuable things you have. It holds morepower than you know. It influences boardroom decisions about what kind of stuff gets made,it can make up the single vote that gets your preferred councillor elected, it can challengecenturies-old traditions and bring about change, it can provoke, it can divide and it can makeor break someone’s day. Your opinion matters. And whether or not it’s something that Ipersonally agree with I want to hear it.Today’s social media and campus “safe spaces” means you never have to even so much asview an opinion different to your own. It’s become all too easy to simply shut people out ifwe don’t agree with them. This is not the kind of world I want to live in. Guys, this is whyold people are calling us snowflakes. We need to stop retreating from any differing opinionsand confront them head on. Only ever being exposed to opinions you agree with may beeasier, but it gives you a much narrower experience of the world. Actively listening tosomeone is such an important force in bringing about change. Remember when we were allforced to read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in Junior Cert and we all hated it? Well there’s thisquote from it that I’ll always remember -“You never really understand a person until youconsider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”You don’t have to agree with someone’s opinion but you should try understand where they’recoming from. A little bit of understanding can go a long way. Listening to someone whothinks a little differently to you or reading something you disagree with will only broadenyour horizons and who knows? You may learn something.Any questions, queries, cries of indignation and above all, opinion pieces: email-opinion@uccexpress.ieI look forward to hearing from you soon :)