It was a strange day, with people invading the U.S. capitol building. Not something you expect to see. And hopefully, something we don’t see often.
Maybe we think it can’t happen here, but I’m not so sure. Just spend a bit of time on social media and you come across people expressing some pretty extreme opinions. It’s not just one side. It comes from all points of view.
The part that makes me a bit sad is not the fact that we all can’t get along. It’s the fact that we can’t seem to disagree in a civil way.
Not everyone has the same opinion. In fact, if you put two people in a room, you’ll likely find that they have at least two different ways of looking at things. And that’s not always a bad thing.
There have been more than a few times in our history when forcing people to compromise and see things from the others’ point of view has actually produced the best results. For some reason, we seem to have forgotten how to do that.
Debate can actually be an exchange of ideas. You might not always change a persons mind, but you might be able to get them to listen to an opposing viewpoint and maybe even take that into consideration. Or not. Either way, it’s likely not the end of the world.
We seem to be forgetting that. There could be any number of reasons. You certainly see enough of it on social media on a regular basis, but I’m not sure that we could put all the blame there.
I have lots of friends that don’t exactly see eye to eye with me on every single thing, but they are still my friends. And I actual enjoy an exchange of ideas now and then.
But it would be nice if we can remember how to disagree and still like one another. We could actually learn a few things along the way.
