The One About Right, Left, and That Place In the Middle

 Well, we're gearing up for yet another election season and the fur has begun to fly. This side did that, the other side did that thing, and by God that new party is filled with racist troglodytes! It brings me to the question is this really the best we can do? 

We're failing here folks. Failing badly. And worst of all, we're not listening to any of the conversations. We're too busy asserting ourselves and then, by virtue of the assertion, we're too busy defending ourselves. Productive no?

I met a man from somewhere else not too long ago. As we sat around and chatted, the conversation turned to politics. He said something that's stuck with me "Americans never get anything done because they're too busy taking sides."

I though the comment was arrogant at the time. After-all, I'm an American and we get things done. We right wrongs, fight injustice, blah, blah, blah... but in a sense, he's right. We don't get things done, not lately... We just take sides.

It got me thinking about talking, listening, politics, and people. Do we really "hear" what the discussion is? Are we "hearing" what others want? Do we "hear" the solutions in the conversations?  Or do we just regurgitate the  sound bytes from the "side" we identify with??

I miss the thinkers in this life, I meet too few these days. I meet a lot of folks who have plenty of things to say, but nothing that they've put their own thought into the topic.