Remember when I got that flyer about the contributions of Italian Americans? Today I got one about the contributions of Hispanics. There
is also one posted on the breakroom door about the contributions of Jewish
Americans, but that one didn’t come to me, so someone else must have received
it and put it up.
I think one of the problems with the politics in this
country is that people are unwilling (or unable?) to see things from someone
else’s point of view, or indeed even acknowledge that other people may have a legitimate
difference of opinion with them. For example, on social media people have been
noting that some religious people are willing to vote for Trump because they
feel that his shortcomings might be able to be addressed with prayer, but when
these same people are asked if prayer would not also help with his opponent’s
shortcomings, they reply that there is no hope for her, she is evil. I’m not
sure where this double standard is coming from, and as Christians we are
supposed to believe nobody is beyond redemption. One person even said he was
asked by a Trump supporter whether he would be willing to concede that Trump
was a great president if by any chance he was, and the person said yes, of
course, he would be happy to concede that if Trump were a great president. He
then turned it around and asked the Trump supporter if he would concede Hillary
was a great president if in fact she was, and the Trump supporter replied, “That
is not possible.” I do not mean to suggest that only Trump supporters have
these blinders about other points of view. I think it would behoove all of us
to try to see what about the candidate we don’t support appeals to other people
(or, in my case, why neither of them appeals to me), and acknowledge that the
other person has a right to that viewpoint. Maybe we could even get to the
heart of the issues and find some common ground. I don’t know when “compromise”
became such a dirty word; we really need to add it back into our political
vocabulary.
Famous Hat
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