We must learn to communicate
To the Editor:
No wonder some of us do not want to talk about nor listen to what we loosely call politics. At least not politics in this country at this time in the USA.
Many of us have limited or stopped watching most or all television news. It’s also difficult to figure out why someone agrees or disagrees with news they have read, much less the credibility of its source.
People of like minds play safe by venting their woes with each other. We choose not to talk with each other about issues we know and/or assume political disagreement among us.
We are allowing ourselves to be locked into oppositions: right/wrong, agree/disagree, win/lose, liar/lame, us/them. Neither divide and conquer nor win/lose unite people.
Some of us choose not to talk about “it” or not to talk about it with “you.” Many have limited or stopped watching most if not all television news. What and where we read political news coverage varies significantly in its claims and whether it is backed by credible sources.
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Instead — right here on our own ground level, during these increasingly heightened political months between early summer and late fall — we can choose to talk and listen about what is best for our union. Conversations to foster understanding rather than force agreement.
What happens or doesn’t happen when citizens of a country, state, county, town, village do not communicate? How long can this silent division continue before communities, organizations and public spaces begin to crumble?
Marsha Lee Baker
Sylva
