What is the benefit of name calling and insulting those who\ndisagree with you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None, you say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Than why do we do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one voice our political leaders say, \u201cI respect you,\u201d and\nwhen backs are turned trot out the insults and those who agree have a good\nlaugh. It\u2019s really not funny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently a group of politicians \u2013 8 democrats and 8\nrepublicans \u2013 were brought together to discuss the opioid crisis. It was a civil conversation until one\npolitician said, \u201cIf the A-holes in the Senate get their act together\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before he could finish a colleague shouted. \u201cI\u2019m leaving if we all we do is insult others. I\u2019m fed up with name calling and demonizing.\u201d\nTurning to the colleague who did the name calling she asked, \u201cHow would you feel if I called you that name\nin this room?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would walk out feeling disrespected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conversation continued. \n\u201cWhat does respect mean to you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt means that we honor each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is not the meaning of respect. To respect someone means \u2018to look again.\u2019 It means to get beneath the surface of words\nand look at what the person really means. \nIt means not to take for granted that surface words are the actual\nintent of the communication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you asking that I look beyond and beneath name-calling\nwords?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes. I mean just\nthat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a therapist or a psychologist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSounds like you\u2019re making an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe. I have no\npractice doing what you are suggesting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen, get into the game. \nIt\u2019s time we all begin to say what we mean and mean what we say. It\u2019s time we start to treat each other with\ngenuine and authentic respect, to care enough about getting our conversations\nbeyond surface words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another colleague jumped into the discussion. \u201cSounds like you\u2019re asking us to be honest,\neven human with each other and forget our political affiliation. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight. If we are not\nauthentic, we cannot trust each other. \nTrust is everything. It\u2019s a\nterrible thing when we distrust each other. \nI am not asking that anyone here change their political party. I am begging us to be true to our deeply held\nconvictions about life, liberty, freedom, and what we all have in common,\nnamely, the Constitution. The Constitution\nis not partisan. And what else do we\nhave in common? Bridges and roads for\nexample. We don\u2019t drive on republican\nroads or cross over on democratic bridges or flush our stuff away in partisan\ndrains. This opioid crisis must be\nended. Are we agreed?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All heads nodded agreement. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many offered comments about name-calling and insults. Some confessed to doing both. Several asked for forgiveness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ndiscussion about the opioid crisis was productive and the meeting concluded\nwith handshakes and hugs with an agreement to convene again over dinner to\ncraft a joint, bipartisan resolution to bring forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the\ndinner, the one woman in the group jumped in. \n\u201cWe are on the cusp of a fantastic solution. This is a time to put our hearts and heads\ntogether. Our hearts know what is right\nand just. Our heads must now craft what\nis right and just. We can do this\ntogether.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ironically, the evening might have been a bust without the\ninitial name-calling comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is that making lemonade? \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What is the benefit of name calling and insulting those who disagree with you? None, you say? Than why do we do it? In one voice our political leaders say, \u201cI respect you,\u201d and when backs are turned trot out the insults and those who agree have a good laugh. It\u2019s really not funny. Recently…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[22,21,11,19],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aspirations","category-partisan-divide","tag-aspirations","tag-bridging","tag-challenges","tag-partisan-divide"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}