Raise Your Hand IF ......
Raise your hand if you occasionally feel anxious about the future. I'm guessing that's almost everyone at least once a week, especially as another divisive election season wraps up.? Maybe there is something we can do to lessen our anxious feelings like finding common ground.
As much as we seem divided into two very different camps, I believe we have much more in common than we’re often willing to admit. Our current reality rewards outlandish statements with clicks, driving television and podcast pundits to exaggerate how "crazy" the other side is. Why? Because it boosts viewership for them, their networks, and their advertisers. Ever feel like we’re all just pawns in this game? Maybe give that some thought.
I want to show you how we may be unwilling players, exploited by the rich and powerful. It’s not your fault; we’re constantly bombarded with messages designed to provoke. No one is immune from the media blitz—some political ads ran more than 20,000 times! No wonder we’re exhausted and fed up with political conflict.? We need to become more discerning about what we accept as truth.
As a former teacher, I’ll ask you to "raise your hand" when you agree with a statement I make below. ?My goal is to show that we agree on more things than we disagree about.?
Here we go:
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?If you agreed with most or all of these, it shows that we’re not so different. Heck, I have friends who are Yankees fans! Oh, the horror. Disagreeing over a favorite sports team, a gas or electric car, or political party isn’t worth ruining friendships or family ties.
Americans let’s get a grip! One study even suggested people wouldn’t go on a single date with someone from an opposing political party. Who have we become? If we continue to see those with different opinions as enemies, we’ll destroy this great experiment called America.
Let’s use sports as a microcosm of society. When the game’s over, we shake hands and move on. We teach athletes to respect their opponents—don’t gloat when you win, and don’t whine when you lose. Maybe we should teach young people about decorum and treating others well. Too often, we judge people without knowing them. We judge them for not attending college or not graduating from a prestigious university. We judge those in small towns or big cities, even if we’ve never been to those places ourselves. Maybe we should start conversations with people we disagree with. If I can have friends who are Yankees fans, and they can tolerate me as a Red Sox fan, maybe we can all be friends regardless of how we vote.
Perhaps that’s the problem: we need to stop seeing people as "red" or "blue" and start viewing them as individuals, free from assumptions. I recently finished a great book called?Blind Spots?by Marisa Murray. Yes, we all have blind spots and biases—things we can’t see or are unwilling to explore.
?All great empires in history were upended from within. We’re on that path, destroying ourselves. It’s time to focus on our similarities rather than our differences.? As the Greek storyteller Aesop first said; “united we stand, divided we fall.”
Raise your hand if you agree!
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