I have spent the past week doing research for my next blog.  I had started to write it and here was my introduction:

Since I wrote my blog on “not understanding anti-woke” I have gotten a lot of comments, both positive and negative.  I have also been directed to a variety of articles and websites both in favor and opposed to “woke”.  As a result, I have delved pretty deeply and have spent a considerable amount of time surfing the net.  As a result of my research, I have concluded that woke versus anti-woke is really only the tip of the iceberg.  I have found a variety of other terms and philosophies are all intertwined in this conflict, including: Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, and LGBTQ.   

As part of my preparation, I did a very fascinating little research project to try and determine the basis for each position (facts, opinions, logic, emotions, etc.), and whether one side was more belligerent, more vicious, than the other.  Here’s what I did, I went to Amazon and entered the following terms along with the word “t-shirt”:

• Conservative
• Liberal
• Anti-conservative
• Anti-liberal
• Democrat
• Republican
• LGBGTQ
• Anti-LGBGTQ
• Woke
• Anti-woke

Then, I collected all of the slogans I saw on the t-shirts from the first page of results.  I thought that this might help me understand the predominant basis (logic, emotion, fact or opinion) behind certain positions and whether one was more visceral than the other.  My conclusions reinforced my preconceived notion, and I was ready to share it so that those that agree with me would cheer my brilliance and those that didn’t agree with me would see the error of their ways.

Then two things happened which caused me to chuck most of what I had written and start over.  Yesterday morning I was watching the “Today Show”.  They were interviewing Queen Rania of Jordan who focuses on a variety of humanitarian issues.  Hoda Kotb suggested that the world was in a dark place and asked the Queen for feedback.  Queen Rania said:

…you’re right.  I think the world is at an inflection point and it seems like polarization is really defining the future of our world.  Whenever we see someone who disagrees with us it has become natural to demonize them.  When you see everything through a political lens it becomes very difficult to come together over any issue.  And the irony is that the issues we are facing today, from climate change to migration to inequality, those all need solutions that come from collaboration… we need more engagement that is rooted in optimism and hope rather than fear.  There’s this wave around the world that’s using people’s fears and insecurities for leaders to gain popularity.  That’s not very helpful, it’s not finding solutions.  We need to focus more not on the why…, but on the how.  How do we find solutions?

This morning I was going through my news feed and saw an article written by Kyler Alvord regarding Cassidy Hutchinson.  Much of the article focused on how she has dealt with the threats, insults and ire she’s experienced since testifying before the January 6^th committee.  The article ended with the following:

To combat the ugliness, she hopes to use her platform to “build bridges” and “restore a sense of decency and accountability in our political system.”

“This is a critical moment for us to be able to educate people, and that’s sort of how I see my role right now: having constructive and difficult conversations with Republicans and with Democrats about how we all need to come together.”

The statements of these two intelligent, articulate women struck me and caused me to realize that what I was writing wasn’t going to help and was just exacerbating the problem.  We have to quit trying to prove we are right.  We have to quit supporting the philosophy of “if you’re not for us, you’re against us”.  We have to quit demonizing those who disagree with us.  We have to focus our efforts on increasing optimism and hope, rather than fear and anger.

Let me give you some examples from my Amazon research to reinforce the belligerence of our current positions.  Do you have a shirt with any of the following phrases?

Liberalism is a mental disorder.  Proud to be everything Liberals hate.  Truth, the new hate speech.  Stop global whining.  LGBT – Liberty, Guns, Beer and Trump.  Science is real.  No human is illegal.  Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man.  I think therefore I am a Democrat.  Let’s go Brandon! Jesus was a liberal.  Jesus is Woke!  We the People, it doesn’t need to be rewritten it needs to be reread.  Help control the idiot population, have your liberals spayed and neutered. My pronoun is Patriot.  When I die don’t let me vote Democrat (or Republican).  I may not be perfect but at least I’m not a Republican (or Democrat).  Make America intelligent again.  Science is not a liberal conspiracy.  Racist, someone who wins an argument with a liberal.  …and literally at least a hundred other inflammatory statements I identified in my search.

Do you really think any of these create an atmosphere to engage with folks that don’t share your views?  NO!  The only thing you have done is raise the defenses of those with differing views and encouraging them to avoid topics… or you.  Heck, in the current environment you may have created an atmosphere for violence.

We must do better!  We need to ask ourselves whether we are creating an atmosphere that is open to discussion, compromise, solutions; or are we creating one that blocks it and causes others to immediately become defensive?  Are we being considerate or thoughtless?  We must reject violence, hate speech, insults as a primary method to discuss an area of disagreement, statements that belittle others, and viewing everything from the lens of “with me or against me”.  Think about it this way: have you ever had a situation where you developed a friendship with someone only to rethink it because they didn’t share your view on politics and / or issues?  How sad is that?  We must learn to “agree to disagree” and search for areas of compromise and agreement.

Finally, we must hold our elected leaders to do better!  How can they (we) ever see resolution to any of the major issues we face if they open discussions with insults and accusations?  We need statesmen and stateswomen who are respected, skilled, and willing to negotiate with those holding differing views.  We do not need politicians who simply pander to their base and do /  say anything to get elected, gain power and maintain power.  We need leaders that are willing to risk their future for what they believe to be right.