Communication 2

One80PerspectivePeople

I've been thinking since last night about communication and relationships and my recent experiences/musings I sought to articulate in last night's blog. It seems that we - and I mean me - often so easily lose perspective in the midst of dialogue and in particular debate, whether the subject is unionization in a local store, trash bins uncollected on our streets, lock-outs, family situations, property lines, school enrollment, or national policy, or causes of inequality in our city. It's so easy to move from dialogue to polarization, from discussion to dismissal. I think we live in a culture that's increasingly polarized and polarizing, in which we're required to voice our opinion more in the negative (I'm against this, or him/her as opossed to I'm for this, him/her...). We entrench our positions before beginning to dialogue so that our discussions become like the nightmare battle quagmires of WW1 like Verdun. Most conversations about President Bush, Hillary, our governor or Paris Hilton begin with such statements....He's an idiot! She's a bitch! He should go back to Hollywood! She's a loser!

Granted we don't know those folks - at least I don't - on a personal level, so generalizing comments like that are easy to say, make us feel better in our powerlessness, and often either get a laugh or piggy-back on a previous joke. Living a public life opens you up to such treatment - for good or bad. But what happens when it gets personal, on a local, community-based, or family level? I think we all too often lose perspective. In our bitterness in losing a battle, or sadness in the face of our wounds, or anger in being misunderstood, or elation is emerging victorious...we forget that it's not just "someone" on the other side, but that it is someone's someone. We forget that at the root of it all it's about people - you, me and the other guy/gal.

In reading the paper this morning I ran across an editorial by Newt Gingrinch reprinted by the Oakland Tribune about the new president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy entitled "Sarkozy's lesson for U.S." (Sac Bee E-Version). What struck me is not Newt Gingrich's policy perogative or message per say, but the example of Sarkozy who has emerged as president in a difficult time in France, when change is not just necessary, but absolutely necessary to ensure the future. I don't think he's necessarily Mother Theresa dressed up in a designer suit (most of our friends in France cried the day he was elected, but didn't go out into the street and burn cars). But I'm struck by his words (interpreted by Gingrich from Sarkozy's book) For France - and America - or even the Dimond, Laurel, Maxwell Park, whatever community we're in - to change, to make a One80, we have to not just focus on what we want, or keep our enemies/adversaries in clear-sight, or entrench our positions for battle...we have to have perspective, to not lose sight that whatever and all of what we are doing is about people - you, me, and the "forgotten (wo)man."

Maybe that's part of what Jesus meant in what we've come to call the "golden rule"

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as
yourself.’ Luke 10:27

or what singer/songwriter/activist Amy Ray means in some lines of her song about Gay Rights and Religious Communities entitled "Let It Ring" on the album "Prom"

When you march stand up straight.
When you fill the world with hate
Step in time with your kind and
Let it ring

When you speak against me
Would you bring your family
Say it loud pass it down and
Let it ring

Let it ring to Jesus
‘cause he sure’d be proud of you
You made fear an institution and
it got the best of you
Let it ring in the name
of the one that set you free
Let it ring

(more lyrics here)

I'm getting preachy...so I should stop. But it does argue a point....do we need to make a One80 in the way we not only talk but even approach each other? Have we forgotten that the person on the other side is first and foremost a "person" before being "on the other side?"