Our country and state are tearing itself apart from the inside. If we continue our polarizing ways, we cannot hope that our children will enjoy the same freedoms that we do today. If we wish to preserve our great state and a healthy democracy, we must embrace our political differences as a society.

We are proud that Hawaii is so ethnically and culturally diverse, but do we ever stop to consider our intellectual diversity? It seems our community embraces all forms of diversity except political diversity.

While it’s important that our government reflects our views, our state may be becoming more of an echo chamber than a healthy democracy. The echo chamber effect is when we, either knowingly or incidentally, place ourselves in a bubble that blocks out opposing views, subsequently reinforcing our own opinions.

For example, Google and Facebook filter our internet feeds to only show content that we would find agreeable. When this happens, we begin to think that our own view is the only “good” view; no other opinion should be considered.

But the truth is: We don’t know the solution to every problem, so we need to hear other viewpoints in order to get closer to an answer.

It is imperative that our government is not influenced by echo chambers in order to have a genuine discourse of ideals. Hawaii’s state Senate is controlled by one party, the only legislature in the country to have no opposition. The state House of Representatives is 90 percent Democrats. With majorities like these, we are creating an echo chamber in the very place we cannot bare to have one. We soon won’t be able to hear other views of how to solve our problems, forever entrenching us in our current issues.

We are not merely referring to the Republican Party’s views but all other majority political parties, as they have something unique to offer. The Green Party, for example, has a strong following in Hawaii. However, our legislature makeup does not reflect this. The problem extends beyond government; we are refusing to listen to what others have to say. As a community, we need to embrace other opinions if we wish to solve our state’s problems.

We can already see the results of our country’s bubbles: 27 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans feel that the opposing political party is so misguided that they threaten the well-being of the country. A recent Reuters poll found that 63 percent of the country believes we are heading in the wrong direction. Instead of fearing other parties, we ought to recognize their importance in our politics. It is not enough to tolerate other opinions; we need other opinions.

It is true that not all opinions are created equal; some are reprehensible. However, we have taken this truth and morphed it into an excuse to dismiss any opinions other than our own. If this trend continues, we may never face our country in the right direction.

Because we sometimes are not aware of our “bubbles,” we have a duty to make a conscious effort to interact with those that think different from us. We must find avenues to step out of our political bubble and reach across the political aisle.

As high school students, we are scared for the future of our country and our state. We want to enjoy a country where we can freely express our opinions without fear. We ask, then, for our communities to talk to each other. Enjoy a nice dinner with someone you disagree with, and let us never forget that we shouldn’t simply permit these opinions, we should listen to them.

Chelbi Juan is a student at Roosevelt High School and Evan Gates is a Kamehameha Schools student; both are class of 2019.