669. Open Discourse

America is broken.

— Darryl Strawberry

If you look at America as an organization, what are it’s core values? Pretty sure they would be life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; right there from the Declaration of Independence, unalienable bill of rights, universal truths. You may not see those as values but in America we value:

– life,

– liberty.

– And we ain’t gonna say we are all happy all the time but we are sure running down the dream… The pursuit of happiness or at least happiness-ish. As long as it’s not forced toxic positivity.

If you go outside the Declaration of “Piece De Resista’nce” Independence, it’s a bit all over the map. You can seek the country’s values out in the national curriculum and that’s at least what we are teaching our kids in K — 12. It goes something like this:

– liberty,

– self-government,

– equality,

– individualism,

– diversity,

– and unity.

So when there are two very bifurcated views where it seems there is no room to meet in the middle, what to do? What does widdle ole America do? Well we all avoid posting anything remotely political on the Books of the Faces. Nothing ever comes from that… that remotely resembles good things. Trust me, I’ve tried.

When two people vehemently disagree the frustration builds on each side, until there’s a communication breakdown. Before you go on, listen to this kick ass song:

So if we believe what Darryl Strawberry says… America is broken. Well he’s a pastor these days, and is hitting them out of the park left and right… right there from the pulpit. The man is on fire as a preacher. I mean just check this below. But I don’t think we are broken. I still believe. We’ve been down but we ain’t out Straw Man!! Not yet. Not yet.

Now to lighten the mood… watch this.

And to close it off I still believe in America and just because the presidential candidate that I supported won doesn’t mean there’s a little less than half the country that mourns the loss of the Don and now feels the same way us moderate fiscally conservatives felt the last four years…enduring a government they don’t support. The thing I’ve found that works for me is to listen to understand, to understand where the other is coming from. You may find if you back it up to talk about our country’s core values… you mutually feel the same about Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Who doesn’t want to be happy among us?Those 3 values are basic drives we have in this country, both the left and the right. Let’s meet in the middle and simply talk, simply listen, simply talk.

Open Discourse, a good thing.