America makes choice that belies its spirit
I have always believed in the goodness of the American spirit. As I enter my retirement age, I have begun to question that assertion.
Do we believe in decency? The rule of law? The importance of the character of the person representing us around the world?
Being raised Baptist, it was always my understanding that you are not only responsible for your own behavior but the behavior you condone.
America and a majority of evangelicals disappointed me on Nov. 5. A vote for one of the candidates was a testament of your principles.
On one side you had a candidate who was not as well known and had some ideas for the economy that were questionable. She was not my first choice, either.
But on the other side was a person with characteristics antithetical to the common decency I believed we all held as Americans. To his credit, that candidate did not hide any of his vile thoughts or beliefs.
At any other time in history, I would have expected good people to say no to this behavior we would not accept from anyone.
I was wrong when I believed that our spiritual leaders would stand up against the evil of this candidate. It seems clear that the religious community has chosen power over morality.
It is a commonly held principle that religion and politics should never mix. Unfortunately, we are going to be retaught this lesson the hard way.
John E. Robinson
Fort Wayne
Glad for prompt results
To the state Board of Elections: Hearty thanks for your timely counting and publishing of the election results.
Schuster Knipstein
Fort Wayne
Seeing both sides can evoke empathy
appIappve looked at life from both sides now,app sings Joni Mitchell in her timeless song. What a great insight!
For years I have read advice columns. Have you pondered what the other person would say? The columnists tend to accept what the writer presents. At best that is half the story. What a useful column if both sides were presented. I think a column requiring both sides would gain strong readership and be helpful.
Numerous studies demonstrate the importance of empathy app appwalk a mile in my moccasins.app Unfortunately, we tend to want others to wear ours.
To paraphrase Robert Frost, maybe we should take the road the other travels for a while. To do this we need to learn to listen. Years ago, a study at the University of Minnesota said that effective leaders spent 46% of their time listening, 30% speaking, 16% reading and 8% writing. We can listen to up to 400 words a minute, and we speak about 100 words per minute (those are averages). Therefore, we can get bored listening, yet that is the best way to learn the other side.
While I firmly believe the two-party system is broken, improvement would take place if both parties listened to the other.
Years ago I said in a workshop (quoting a hero of mine), appPeople treat us the way we teach them to treat us.app I enjoyed the many head nods in response to this statement. After the workshop an upset participant confronted me: appI was raped. Did I teach that person to rape me?app
I was pretty crestfallen when I looked at it from that side. And feel like I learned something.
My impression is that people are more fulfilled when they see both sides, though I have no hard data to support that. I do think that Joni got it right: Enjoy looking at both sides.
John Lovell
Fort Wayne
