What with all the religious and political debate going on here at our illustrious university, it seems to me that plenty of people are trying to change someone else’s mind.

This is not necessarily a hard thing to do. But some guidelines must be followed to encourage a conversion of thought. Since it appears to me that those who wish to change people’s minds aren’t aware of these common sense rules, I’d like to take the opportunity to inform them.

Don’t attack. Fear of the other options is never a good reason to do anything. Build up your own position and don’t waste time tearing down other ones. As the saying goes, you’ll catch more flies with honey.

Get your facts straight. Making statements with no support is a no-no. Reference your information and remember that there very well might be someone in the audience who is more informed on the topic than you are.

Be specific. State your goals, what you stand for, what you believe in and why for all of them. If you’ve got valid reasons, we’ll hear you out. Vagaries and platitudes are not convincing.

Accept the fact that there is a dark side. Whether it’s “youthful indiscretions” or the Spanish Inquisition, it exists.

Admit it. If you hide your dark side, we will always imagine it larger than it really is. Honesty is the best policy.

Treat others as people first. Making friends for the sole purpose of bringing them to your side is one of the greatest rape of friendship that exists. We are people, not potential converts.

Accept that you can’t always win. There will always be some people who think that you are dead wrong. While some of them may simply be stubborn, they may have equally valid reasons for thinking the way they do. We all have the right to our own opinions.

Perhaps if these rules were kept, the general public wouldn’t hate politicians and proselytizers so much. We might even become a society of civilized, thinking individuals. And I think we’d all like to see that.

Jean Fitzpatrick

Senior

Biology and religious studies