Hello,

It is less than two weeks before the 2006 mid-term elections in the US and the campaign ads are all but impossible to miss.  I live in the middle of the United States and many congressional districts around me are up for grabs.  Therefore many of the television and radio ads are laced with fear inducing phases that are intended to do nothing more than press primal buttons in the people who are exposed to them.  

Never mind that I am personally insulted by the presumption that I am so easily manipulated.  I want to start a grassroots conversation that calls for more understanding,  more communication, more learning from each other and most importantly, more listening. 

I hold the contention that in a free and demographic society, we are given a great set of responsibilities; not  just to defend and stand for freedom around the world, (I say that with great respect for the people in the armed forces, several of whom are in my family) but to truly strive to understand the place that others are coming from.   

Some would have you beleive that the Evangelical Christians are spiritual facists.  Others would have you beleve that the ACLU is the right arm of the devil. 

 The Gay Community is an abomination and religious conservatives are manufactuing crises to jump start the tribulations and bring on the rapture.  Which are you to beleive holds more ”Truth”.  Maybe you read this and you have already decided for yourself.  I contend that neither holds more truth than the other.

I believe that one of the most patriotic things that we can do, is to do our best to understand where other people are coming from.  The future of Democracy requires more than polite restraint while we wait for our turn to make the other side “wrong”.  It requires more than merely tolerating the fact that people who disagree with you exist. 

It actually requires that you find compassion for those you dissagree with.  It requires you grant validity to the passions that others feel for things your may dissagree with.   It requires that you accept the fact  that all world views are actually valid.  They are valid becasue they exist.

I do not think that I am alone in the view that I hold here.  I invite you to join me in a conversation that might just change the previaling winds of fear in our world.

I invite your replies.

 Thank you.