A Lack of Respect

Bike rides, especially longer ones, offer plenty of time for reflection. When the only conversation is the breeze blowing through the grasses and the hum of traffic competing for the same segment of blacktop, the mind goes other places.

It is a good experience, really. There are conversations that need to start internally. The more I watch communication skills in society, the more I wonder if we’ve disregarded the skills of diplomacy. Politics proves it. It doesn’t matter whose side you support or if your quiet desperation is neither primary party fully gets your nod. The trend is follow or get labeled.

The rare exception is the people who admit their ideologies are polarized but can still have an enjoyable cup of coffee in a favorite café with a productive exchange of ideals. The press collectively is accused of being the bad guy in front of the White House and other exchanges. The “alt-right” is labeled a list of politically incorrect, even to say socially damaging terms. Groups from the other extreme are busy with an agenda that smacks of increasing socialism. The result is often like a circular firing squad, the legend of the Hatfields and McCoys when people have been fighting so long and so ruthlessly they don’t even know what started it.

I’ve been in instances, unfortunately isolated, where ideals were polarized. One side was known for identifying with one ideal and political party and I with another. It was the kind of environment that a different cast of characters and a few years later it could have been called an hostile work environment. There were times I would burst through the door to enter a conversation on what is going on in city hall, the county offices or even non-political global issues. We would talk of how Candidate X has been a school boy since he first entered school, how Candidate A continues to mislead voters and how if people would quit shouting at each other we might actually get something done.

It wasn’t a hostile work environment because diplomacy, respect and communication worked. It worked because we tried, we made the effort. We respected each other even when we didn’t agree with each other. Maybe what is missing is respect for each other. Maybe society has become warm to the taste of blood, even if it is only verbal. The real fear is already proven in the headlines. Some groups have progressed from verbal assaults to “peace marches” resulting in vandalized businesses and offices. It is closer to anarchy than social protest.

The militant polarization of America makes me wonder how many of these groups want a free society, or even a future for the nation. Too often we are at the place of you can display any flag you want, as long as you have permission. That isn’t freedom. That is living under the confines of someone else’s ideals.

Call me old school if you want, but the problems in our country can be fixed easier than we think. The issues start with communication, with putting aside the hatred and childish name-calling and focus on bringing the country together. We need an effort to find the middle ground instead of waiting for the other side to trip. Any given press conference will show this effort is becoming further and further from the mainstream thought process.

The problem isn’t with the press as an industry. A free press is necessary for a free society, even when we don’t agree with how the news is packaged. When there is a problem in the press it is when one person’s ideologies are allowed to dictate the direction of news reporting. It is when the news is reflective of the unsettled mentality of society in general.

All sides need to choose to have productive discussions. Don’t be quick to fire back, but listen first. Recognize sometimes the two sides are more alike than different.