The real trouble these days

I hate to comment too much on political and social issues these days. Part of it quite honestly is me. I get upset and, if I'm not really careful, I lash out, especially when provoked by an unfairness of some sort. And it's fair to say there's a lot of unfairness going on, don't you think?

Yet we can't change things, we can't learn the good from the bad, without talking honestly but fairly. That, I think, is the real trouble today. Too many people say they want truth when what they want is to have their way.

That's fine if their way actually leads to truth. But again, we can't ever know if it leads to truth unless we can talk, honestly and fairly. We all need to do a better job of that, because once the finger pointing and name calling begins we are all just shutting the other guy out.

Once you call me racist because I intend to vote for President Trump this November I will tune out absolutely everything else you say after that. My thoughts on the President are nuanced and, to a very great degree, forced by circumstance. If you are unwilling to examine the nuance and forces at work behind my decision, we can't fitfully discuss whether I ought to vote for him or not.

I try to play fair with this idea, as I should. Once someone refers to President Obama as O'Bummer or some derogatory term, they get shut out of my mind too. I dismiss them as someone who does not really want honest, fair, and charitable conversation.

You want to talk to me, talk to me, and I will strive to treat you with the same dignity. You want to insult me, well, I can insult you too. And it will get us exactly nowhere.