I have this friend.<\/p>\n
She thinks a little different than me.<\/p>\n
She is, in fact, a reader of this blog.\u00a0 I so appreciate her opinion!<\/p>\n
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But news flash:\u00a0 her opinion is often different than mine.<\/p>\n
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Many a time my friend and I have met at the local coffee shop.\u00a0 We have talked and bantered and chilled and sometimes conversed for hours.\u00a0 Sometimes we\u2019ve just laughed.\u00a0 We\u2019ve intentionally avoided no issue.\u00a0 And never have we said, \u201cOk, we\u2019re just going to have to agree to disagree,\u201d<\/em> because never has there been an issue we couldn\u2019t talk about.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do we always feel the same?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Of course not.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But on those issues when she\u2019s felt one way and I\u2019ve felt another, we\u2019ve had the guts and integrity and courage and sincerity to say \u201ctell me why you feel that way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And then we do this outrageous thing:\u00a0 we listen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Follow me here…\u00a0 One of my teenage sons often attempts to tell me he\u2019s actually, truly listening.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m listening!\u00a0 I hear you.\u201d\u00a0<\/em> To which I typically, semi-humbly retort, \u201cTo listen does not mean to simply hear.\u00a0 To listen means to both hear and consider.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My coffee shop friend and I both hear and consider.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The challenge in the way our political system has evolved is that far too many people are discouraging the coffee shop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And even more discouraging is that the people most discouraging of the coffee shop are not people like my friend and me…\u00a0 it\u2019s not our families nor extended families… it\u2019s not even our friends and social circles.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The persons who most discourage the coffee shop conversation?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The candidates themselves.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The candidates encourage division.\u00a0 The candidates have something to gain from division.\u00a0 Yes, you heard me correctly.\u00a0 The current President of the United States and his primary challenger are intentionally attempting to divide us.\u00a0 The more they can distinguish their differences and separate themselves from their opponent \u2014 the more likely they believe we are to vote for them.\u00a0 And so they must vehemently frown upon coffee shop meetings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You see the purpose of the coffee shop is to dispel impure notions and intentionally work at understanding different opinion.\u00a0 Allow me to share a brief example…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Thursday, last week Hollywood actress, Eva Longoria, tweeted to the world that she has \u201cno idea why any woman\/minority can vote for Romney.\u00a0 You have to be stupid to vote for such a racist\/misogynistic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now let the record show that even though many are passionate in their opinion, there are no facts nor a majority of opinion that prove either Gov. Romney or Pres. Obama are racist or yada yada yada [insert disrespectful name here]<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong> Hence, Ms. Longoria\u2019s opinion is exactly that:\u00a0 her opinion.\u00a0 To say she has \u201cno idea\u201d how someone could possess an opinion different than hers<\/em><\/strong> tells me one primary thing…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ms. Longoria has never spent time in the coffee shop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How impure and disturbing it is that our candidates discourage what is good; they discourage what is good for their own, self-serving benefit. \u00a0That is foolish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With less than 3 weeks until this country takes its next national vote, allow me to encourage what our so-called \u201cleaders\u201d will not… what fair-weathered Facebook friends may not… and what partisan pundits cannot…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meet me at the coffee shop.\u00a0 Good stuff happens there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Respectfully,<\/p>\n AR<\/p>\n I have this friend. She thinks a little different than me. She is, in fact, a reader of this blog.\u00a0 I so appreciate her opinion! But news flash:\u00a0 her opinion is often different than mine. Many a time my friend and I have met at the local coffee shop.\u00a0 We have talked and … <\/p>\n