Respect

Writing like I do gives me a chance to explore different things.  In other circumstances I may think I do not have the space to cover a particular thing, but this way I can take on different things that are of interest to me.
Hence what I am writing about at the moment.  I do not cover these topics every day but at the moment I am going back to this sort of thing regularly.  It is writing about different words in the English language that engender hope and what is positive.  Words like hate, malice, and envy are to me all negative and are not traits I seek.  Yet words like love, respect, and self-control are all words that embody what I aspire to.
Today the word respect has come up.  I tend to find out the meaning of a word and go where it may take me.  In this instance it led me to the Ethics Centre which, like so often, I did not know existed.
Much of what they had to say was stuff that I agree with.  But alas it highlighted afresh to me how so often there is a difference between words and actions.
I remember the leader of another country was visiting our parliament.  I did not agree with him, but I thought he deserved respect, due to the high office he bore.  I admit I was so embarrassed to see one of our members who like me disagreed with him, treating him disrespectfully.
That seems to be the case a lot these days in social media.  Express a view that is not the current thinking of most, and a person can be flooded with disrespectful comments.  I have no problem with expressing an alternate point of view.  My problem so often is how it is expressed.  The person is attacked rather than the idea.
It is not just in social media this happens.  I have seen it get out of hand, and it left me gob smacked.  Two people that had different points of view.  What started out politely ended in a shouting match with one storming off.
The Ethics Centre put it like this “…civilised and principled disagreement can help avoid matters getting out of hand when tempers fray. But safer, better forms of deliberation are collateral benefit of acting on the principle of respect for persons – and acknowledging their intrinsic dignity – even when we are opposing them.
I am a great believer in respect.  Even if I disagree with someone.  I may choose not to associate with them and discourage others from doing so.  But whatever someone holds to, they deserve respect as a person.  The vilest person can have a change of heart.  I see myself as one being willing to be there if that happens.  I just know that the one I go to is the one who, despite what I may have done, accepts, loves and forgives me.  Respects me.