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Finding Common Ground
Forgive me, if this sounds preachy. It’s my first time trying to tackle this concept in a written format, whether prose, letter, or something else. I’ve just had cause to reflect recently on our current situation in the nation (United States), and on differences as a whole that often lead to conflict. Different ideals. Different cultures. Different religions. And, yes, in some cases (though I do hate that these cases exist) different skin color. There’s opposition and conflict in just about every situation in the world. Even when we’re doing something as simple as moving one object to another place, opposition is in effect as we enact a force on that object to make it move against the laws of gravity. It seems in all this disparity that often, the only similarity between extremes that I can find is an intense dislike, if not outright hatred on both far sides of these conflicts. I hear conversations where men and women defame Donald Trump as a liar, a con man, and someone who is out to only better the wealthy and the rich. And yet, I don’t hear anything about his accomplishments that he’s made in his time as president from many of them. Likewise, I hear those who have praised Trump for his good works without acknowledging the past mistakes, sins, misdeeds, or misconducts that he has committed, before taking office. (I wasn’t sure which word would best apply. Hence, why I used multiples that could be deemed as synonyms.) Please note, this is not a political commentary, or at least it’s not intended as one. I’m simply stating this as an example. Another would be the whole debate that rages between homosexuality and heterosexuality (forgive me, if these terms seem outdated. I don’t keep up with all these new terms scientists and culture has come up with. Heck, I didn’t know they’d changed LGBT to LGBTQ, until I had to do research on it for an article I was writing.) It seems that people are forgetting what it is to be willing to respect that others have different beliefs on both sides, whether it be over religion, sexuality, politics, culture, or any number of other topics. As a Christian, I found myself under attack for saying that I couldn’t support someone’s decision to go through a transgender operation, but that I could and did respect their decision to go through with it, because it’s their choice. The funny thing of it, the person I was addressing didn’t blow up at all. It was a boatload of other people from all across the spectrum. Other Christians, atheists, and who knows what else. I don’t know what classifications or identifications these people take. It was online, after all. I understand the importance of free speech, of letting one’s opinion be known. I just miss the time when we could be willing to look at one another, and while we saw differences, could still see a common ground of humanity, of the fact that we each have our own choices to make, and that while we may not agree with each other, we can still have civil conversation and even develop great friendships, despite our differences. What happened to the age of compromise? What happened to the time of understanding between one another? I don’t know. All I know is that I wake up and look at the news, and all I see is more disparity, more anger, more violence, and not much dialogue. Maybe it’s happening behind the scenes. I don’t know. I just wish people would be willing to look more at one another and say, “Hey, I don’t agree with your choices, but I like you as a person. Wanna hang out?” I know there’s no cookie cutter solution to differences. Every situation is different, and I most certainly will never claim to have an answer to the conflict in the first place. But I do think it would help, if people stopped pointing fingers or making mobs or yelling or screaming against other points of view. Compromise and change require peaceful discussion. It’s like Doctor Who said in his famous speech during the Zygon war. You can get up, fight the battles, lose thousands of lives on both sides, or you can do what you always have to do in the end, what inevitably happens, no matter what the end result may be. You sit down, and you talk. I wish people would do that again. It’s so much easier to find that common ground, when you’re actually willing to look for it.