When I step back from the blogs, news stories and Facebook
rants about politics this year, I realize the challenge that Americans
face. We have to choose people to govern
us and keep us together as a country, and in order to do that we have to identify our
distinct values so that we can take a position, often diametrically opposed to
that of other Americans. In our quest to find some one to unite us we form partisan factions that stand in strident opposition.
What we all seem to forget, or fail to accept, is that we
are not a like-minded people and will never be.
This land is too big, our experience too diverse, and our personal
“religions” to different ever coalesce into one voice, one mind. This means that Americans can let ourselves
bicker and bash as we have for the last few months, or we can work to find
places that we agree and try to solve problems in that context.
The other reality that we are ignoring right now is that we
think differently because we are different and those differences in the way our
minds work keep us from seeing the world the same way. For example, some people
see wealth or resources as finite. There
is only a certain amount and if you have more that means I have less. Others see it as unlimited, so that if you
have more than me I can still go get more too.
You can’t easily change some ones mind on something like this, so don’t
try. That doesn’t mean we can’t share
that world.
Our challenge in listening to political advertisements,
speeches and debates is to decide who is going to help us solve problems,
provide for our needs, and help us live in peace and prosperity with our world
neighbors. The goal is to have OUR country not MY country. Remember, if only your views are heard and
only your wishes granted then another body of Americans is going to be left out
and their needs not met. The next time
one of your neighbors speaks in support of a candidate, a principle or belief
that you object to, close your mouth and listen. Why is his/her thinking so different from
yours? Where is the common ground?
Democracy is messy enough without all the yelling.
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