Bryan W. Alaspa 1The idea of common ground
August 6th 2009 13:44
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said, “a house divided against itself was probably worked on by sub-contractors.” No, OK, sorry, I am a tad caffeinated this morning. What he really said was, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” What he was arguing against was the idea of a two-party system in the country. He was very much against the idea and when he looked in his crystal ball he was probably looking ahead to the way the country is today.
Throughout my life the country has had only two parties. Don’t try to tell me that the Libertarians and the Green Party and all of the other parties are legit. You may agree with any one of those parties’ beliefs, but they are not serious. It has been the Democrats versus the Republicans for a long time now. The problem is that, these days, the sides are more sharply divided than ever.
It is one thing for that to happen in the halls of government, but these days it has spread everywhere. Now, everyone is so certain that whatever they believe is the absolute truth that they don’t even bother trying to listen to the other side to see if, maybe, they might have a point. Meanwhile, the other side is so busy shouting that they can’t see if the other side might not also have some good points.
The fact is that we live in a world that has no absolutes. There are no absolute answers. No one can just say “yes” or “no” about most things. Those that do are not keeping their minds open. The fact is that the answer is more than likely somewhere in the middle. The problem is, no one wants to venture into no-man’s land.
These days if you spend any time watching the 24-hour news channels (and God help you if you do) you can see this. The Republicans spent months talking about how Obama’s plans were not helping the economy. Now that some indicators show that the economy may finally be recovering these same people are on there saying, well, sure it’s recovering, but Obama has nothing to do with it.
And, Democrats, listen to your raging liberal brother here, and admit that you did the exact same thing to Bush. Of course, Bush was a moron, which made it much more fun and much easier, but you still did the same thing. If Bush and Cheney had stood on the White House lawn and healed the blind you still would have found fault with it, wouldn’t you? Admit it.
Of course, when everyone in the world is certain that their side is right to the point that they don’t listen to the other side or even admit that their side might be wrong, then nothing gets done. People should passionately hold on to their beliefs but then listen to opposing sides and, if the opposing side has a valid point, the beliefs should he joyously and actively changed. If empirical evidence requires that commonly held beliefs be changed, then they should be changed and humanity should be happy that knowledge has allowed us to discover something new.
So, relax. Take a deep breath. Stop shouting. Take just a few moments to actually listen. You might just learn something. That’s a good thing
Throughout my life the country has had only two parties. Don’t try to tell me that the Libertarians and the Green Party and all of the other parties are legit. You may agree with any one of those parties’ beliefs, but they are not serious. It has been the Democrats versus the Republicans for a long time now. The problem is that, these days, the sides are more sharply divided than ever.
It is one thing for that to happen in the halls of government, but these days it has spread everywhere. Now, everyone is so certain that whatever they believe is the absolute truth that they don’t even bother trying to listen to the other side to see if, maybe, they might have a point. Meanwhile, the other side is so busy shouting that they can’t see if the other side might not also have some good points.
The fact is that we live in a world that has no absolutes. There are no absolute answers. No one can just say “yes” or “no” about most things. Those that do are not keeping their minds open. The fact is that the answer is more than likely somewhere in the middle. The problem is, no one wants to venture into no-man’s land.
These days if you spend any time watching the 24-hour news channels (and God help you if you do) you can see this. The Republicans spent months talking about how Obama’s plans were not helping the economy. Now that some indicators show that the economy may finally be recovering these same people are on there saying, well, sure it’s recovering, but Obama has nothing to do with it.
And, Democrats, listen to your raging liberal brother here, and admit that you did the exact same thing to Bush. Of course, Bush was a moron, which made it much more fun and much easier, but you still did the same thing. If Bush and Cheney had stood on the White House lawn and healed the blind you still would have found fault with it, wouldn’t you? Admit it.
Of course, when everyone in the world is certain that their side is right to the point that they don’t listen to the other side or even admit that their side might be wrong, then nothing gets done. People should passionately hold on to their beliefs but then listen to opposing sides and, if the opposing side has a valid point, the beliefs should he joyously and actively changed. If empirical evidence requires that commonly held beliefs be changed, then they should be changed and humanity should be happy that knowledge has allowed us to discover something new.
So, relax. Take a deep breath. Stop shouting. Take just a few moments to actually listen. You might just learn something. That’s a good thing
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