Joe looked long at the menu. “I’ll have the prime rib,” he said to the waitress. “No, let me have the chicken parm.”

“You want pasta or mashed potatoes?” asked the waitress.

“Potatoes,” said Joe. The server walked away. “No!” Joe shouted. “Pasta, please!”

His friend Lee sat across the table and shook his head.

“So, Tammy and I were going to go to St. Lucia for two weeks, but we changed our minds,” said Joe. “We’re going to Bermuda instead.”

Lee asked, “What made you change your mind?”

“I did a lot of research,” Joe replied. “St. Lucia is very humid, much more so than Bermuda, and we like the fact that Bermuda is small enough you can travel the whole island on a moped.”

“And you said you were going to Penn State for your master’s degree, but now you’re going to Pitt?” Lee asked.

“I had second thoughts about going to Penn State,” said Joe, “and when I looked at Pitt’s course studies, they appealed much more to me.”

“Your degree will be in environmental science?”

“Yes,” said Joe. “You know, I used to believe that climate change was real backed by scientific evidence, but according to latest research, the Earth is not getting warmer every year. My area of study will prove that climate change is nothing more than a fairy tale. You have to believe science when it dispels all the myths. That’s why I’m a fact-checker and I don’t listen to others’ opinions. They should never be a basis for any the decisions we make, especially if our decisions affect others.”

“You know that’s not true, Joe. Like most people, you make decisions that will benefit your needs,” said Lee. “Would you make a decision that helps others but not you?”

“Don’t we all stubbornly believe what we want to believe and don’t want to change our minds?” said Joe. “I know people who stick to their opinions, and nothing can make them change their minds. You can show them a wall that’s painted red, but if they tell you that it’s a blue wall, then it’s blue. They think that changing their minds makes them look stupid. I say that after you gather the facts and the facts prove your opinion is wrong, then the smart thing to do is change your mind. The fact is if the wall is red, then it’s red.”

“Think about the times we change our minds, or we don’t change our minds and ignore reasons why we should,” said Lee. “Marriage comes to mind. Nobody is 100 percent sure it will work out. What if your friend sees problems in the relationship and advises you to call off the wedding. In your heart you know he might be right, but you marry her anyway. Three years later, you’re into divorce and he says, ‘I told you so’ ”

“Now how about politics?” Lee continued. “How do you decide whether you’re a Democrat or Republican?”

“I come from a long line of Republicans in my family,” said Joe. “It’s a legacy that we pass from generation to generation. It’s the Grand Old Party, baby!”

“And my family are card carrying Democrats,” said Lee. “They tell me to vote party line even if I never heard of the Democrat who’s running in the election. They might disown me if I switched parties,” he added with a laugh.

“You’re a Democrat for life and I’m a Republican. End of story,” said Joe.

“You’re right, Joe. There’s nothing that can make us change our minds about what political party we support. If Mickey Mouse was running on the blue ticket, he gets my vote.”

“And if Donald Duck runs red, I will check mark his box.”

“That red-painted wall you spoke about will always be red, but I’ll tell you it’s blue and I could get a lot of people to see blue along with me. If I changed my party to Republican, how would that make me look to my fellow Democrats?”

Joe smiled. “It would make you look smart because you’d finally see what we need to make us a better country than it is now.”

“What about you?” asked Lee. “What if I gathered facts, not political opinions, that say we need Democrats to improve America?”

“You could gather a library’s worth of your so-called facts and it wouldn’t matter. I see red. I bleed red.”

Joe looked down at his plate. “I should have gotten the prime rib.”

The two friends then got up to leave the restaurant. Just before the exit, Joe pulled Lee to a stop in front of a wall that was painted red.

“What color is this wall, Lee?”

“It’s blue,” he replied.

“How can you say that? It’s obviously red.”

“I know what game you’re playing, Joe. I’m playing it, too. That wall is red, but I only see blue. Therefore, it’s blue.”

Joe seemed annoyed. “You ignore the fact that it’s a red wall just to hold onto an opinion that is obviously wrong.”

“But that’s what most people do, Joe. Opinions become facts and facts become opinions.”

A man walked by. “Excuse me, sir,” said Joe. “Can you please tell me what color this wall is? My friend here says it’s blue, but it’s obvious that it’s red, don’t you agree?

The man studied the wall. “I don’t see red and I don’t see blue,” he said. “I can’t tell. I’m color blind.”

The man took a step away and looked back. “Why should it matter what color it is?” he said. “Just see things for what they are. We can all agree that its purpose is to divide one room from another, can’t we?”

The man opened the door and left. Joe and Lee stood in silence, staring at the wall.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com