{"id":9069,"date":"2018-09-30T08:18:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-30T12:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=9069"},"modified":"2018-09-30T08:18:03","modified_gmt":"2018-09-30T12:18:03","slug":"so-now-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=9069","title":{"rendered":"so now what?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This last week has been a political soap opera. With all due respect to both the bold and the beautiful, this week has been awful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not awful because a woman was finally given an opportunity to speak. Not awful because a man was finally given an opportunity to clear his name.<\/p>\n

Awful because of how we<\/i> have behaved.<\/p>\n

Flip from one news source to the other\u2026 from FOX to CNN\u2026 MSNBC to the Weekly Standard\u2026 HuffPo to WaPo\u2026 the New York Times to the New York Post. You\u2019ll read what you want to hear\u2026 \u201cThere is no way she is lying!\u201d \u2026 \u201cThere is no way he is lying!\u201d \u2026 \u201cThe gaps in her story don\u2019t matter!\u201d\u2026 \u201cA 35 year old accusation doesn\u2019t matter!\u201d\u2026 \u201cHow dare you don\u2019t believe her!\u201d\u2026 \u201cHow dare you slander him!\u201d\u2026 <\/i>\u201cHow dare you!!\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

In other words\u2026 how dare you think differently than me.<\/i><\/p>\n

Sadly, we have been encouraged to believe only one perspective is right.<\/p>\n

Sadly, we have been encouraged that because only one perspective is right, all other angles are either evil, ignorant or idiotic.<\/p>\n

And sadly, we like to say so. Sometimes meanly.<\/p>\n

No wonder many of us have chosen simply to tune it out. No wonder many of us just want to say our peace absent of any dialogue. No wonder many of us, too, find comfort in social media\u2019s partisan echo chambers.<\/p>\n

Friends, I, too, have not handled all things well. I can get riled up sometimes; this has been awful. But let me humbly share with you what I sincerely believe\u2026<\/p>\n

I believe that last week we witnessed two honorable people share what they believe to be true.<\/p>\n

I also believe that the media has egged us on\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 and our politicians are playing politics. There is zero doubt in my mind that political motivations drove much of the tense conversation in last week\u2019s Senate chambers.<\/p>\n

There gathered what a wise friend termed \u201cthe layout of the representation of America. We had the Texan, the Southerner, the New Englanders, the Hawaiian, the West Coast, East Coast. It didn\u2019t matter if they were Republicans or Democrats; they collectively showed the divide, the anger, the incivility, the circus that is our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what\u2019s awful. Do we even want to be civil again?<\/i><\/p>\n

When Sen. John McCain passed away last month, some said at times he was \u201cthe conscience of the nation.\u201d He encouraged civility. He encouraged respect. He did not want to fuel the divide. In his final statement, in fact, he wrote: \u201cWe weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe.\u201d<\/i> Those tribal rivalries aren\u2019t just across the globe; last week they were on display in the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

So now what?<\/i><\/p>\n

Will we humble ourselves?<\/p>\n

By that I mean\u2026 will we quit acting as if there is only one right perspective?\u2026 will we quit disparaging the person who holds a different perspective? \u2026 will we quit hanging out with the one who thinks differently? \u2026 will we quit learning from them? \u2026 will we quit telling them that they need to think like us? \u2026 will we quit judging and insulting them if they don\u2019t think like us?\u2026 will we quit thinking that one party is a beacon of purity and the other is evil? \u2026 will we quit dwelling in partisan echo chambers? \u2026 will we quit thinking that we are so moral and the other party is so not? \u2026 will we quit turning a blind eye to the obvious political ploys in the party with which we most identify? \u2026 will we quit ignoring that they are manipulating both citizens and situations for their benefit? \u2026 will we quit engaging in personal attacks? \u2026 will we quit relying on those biased news sources for accurate news? \u2026 will we quit?<\/i><\/p>\n

Will we quit throwing stones at one another?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Sadly, too many believe we must keep throwing stones. One month, it\u2019s one party \u2014 the next, the other. And we justify the throwing by our tribal likeminded because \u201cthose guys did it first.\u201d Do we not realize by continuing to justify the throwing of stones, we are doing <\/i>damage<\/i><\/b>?<\/i> We are not being humble; we are instead contributing to the circus; and we are making things worse.<\/i><\/p>\n

So again\u2026 now what?<\/p>\n

Humbling ourselves, each of us \u2014 meaning respecting and loving our brothers and sisters, neighbors and strangers, no matter how different they look, act, vote, and think like us \u2014 such is the only honorable way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, that sentence is a little klunky. But I want to be clear. Respecting, loving, and interacting with the one who is different than us is the only honorable way.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This last week has been a political soap opera. With all due respect to both the bold and the beautiful, this week has been awful.\u00a0 Not awful because a woman was finally given an opportunity to speak. Not awful because a man was finally given an opportunity to clear his name. Awful because of how … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “so now what?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9069"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9074,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9069\/revisions\/9074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}