I have a confession to make: Some of my friends are Trump supporters!
I know, this is shocking, so let’s just take a moment to let this news sink in!
The truth is that I find it silly to dislike someone because we voted differently, or because one of us is Liberal and the other Conservative. I do not look down on these folks, or feel that they are less intelligent, they just have different ideas. In fact, I have learned that listening to different ideas can be a good thing, and can help us to keep an open mind, and maybe even learn something.
Recently, I had the opportunity to talk to one of these friends, and we did wind up talking about Donald Trump and his Presidency. I was clear that I was not a fan, but my friend confirmed that he was a supporter. Often this is enough to stop any civil conversation, but as I like this person, and have respect for him, we continued to talk.
We shared our thoughts about our President’s policies, his past and many of his current behaviors, along with how he has been treated by press. My friend and I agreed on some things, and disagreed on others. He made good arguments for why he felt as he did and so did I.
We also talked about work, life, family, the environment, etc., and the interesting thing is that we found that we agreed on much more than we disagreed upon. We had a good conversation, and found our friendship to be even stronger when we parted that evening.
The truth is that we are constantly in contact with people we disagree with. We share the same community, schools, work, places of worship, etc. And for the most part, we do not give our differences a second thought, instead, we focus on those things we have in common, that bind us together! It is only when we turn on the news, or log onto Social Media, that we are reminded that we are supposed to be adversaries with anyone who doesn’t agree with us!
I believe that being so polarized serves no good purpose for us, as it only pulls us apart and stops us from moving forward together. However, it does help the news media and politicians, as it gives one ratings and the other, power to do whatever they want while we are distracted by fighting among ourselves!
In this time of overwhelming information, where we have so many pundits telling us how we should think, and what we should do, it can be easy to forget that in this country, WE are the ones who are in charge! Instead, we wind up feeling stuck in the middle, between the two sides of the political equation, which can often seem like two sides of the same coin!
Over the past few years a call came from the Conservatives to “Take our country back!” My initial question was “Take it back from who?” However, now I can see that we need to take it back from those who profit from keeping us apart and at odds with each other, we need to take it back from the greedy and the corrupt, and put it back in the hands of the people!
How do we do this?
We start by rejecting the polarizing rhetoric, and committing to working together, to listening to each other’s ideas and resurrecting the old idea of “compromise”! No one has all of the answers in this life, and it is only by working together and learning from our differences, that we can take our country back, and move forward, to a brighter future!
Ordinary Adventures 