WE CAN STILL BE FRIENDS….

People argue that a difference in opinion shouldn’t mean the end of a friendship, and if it comes to something trivial, such as pineapple on a pizza, that is true, but when a person supports a person or a policy that would harm the other party, and I don’t mean a richer person having to pay more tax, no.

My long-ago ex-girlfriend once made the preposterous statement, after we’d broken up, that she hoped that my wife wouldn’t mind having to make two drinks. Two drinks being one coffee (for her) and one tea (for me). I don’t have a wife, but having to make a cup of coffee and a cup of tea is not an imposition as you fill and boil the kettle, put a teaspoonful of coffee into one cup and a teabag into another, add sugar and/or milk and the boiled water and stir them. If one member of a couple or one friend likes coffee and one friend likes tea, that’s a difference in taste, or if one person likes coffee with milk and one doesn’t, so what. But if one person is a racist, homophobic, transphobic, Trump supporter and one is none of the above, then unless there’s something extremely special, then that’s not the basis for a lasting friendship. As Trump has demonstrated that he wants transgender folks out of the military, if the person who is not a Trump supporter has a friend or relative who is transgender who is in the military, they will be hurt by Trump’s actions.

A vegetarian and an omnivore can still be friends within reason, but living together can be challenging. A vegetarian might say, “I don’t eat meat, but I don’t mind if you do,” but a vegan and a vegetarian might clash living together if the latter consumes dairy.

If values clash or someone supports someone who wants to hurt someone you care about, you can’t still be friends.