We’re not listening anymore

Most of us have our own opinions.

Watching last Thursday’s presidential debate is confirmation that the candidates have differing opinions on how the United States of America should function going forward.

There have been differing opinions on whether to lockdown or open our society, businesses and schools during this COVID-19 pandemic. Even a doctor offering a differing opinion on whether facemasks worked to prevent the spread of the virus was subjected to censorship by Twitter.

The stakes are getting greater than a facemask.

When one can no longer state one’s opinion without reprisals, have we, as a nation, gone too far? After all the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees all of us freedom of speech.

Yes, perhaps we have gone too far in curtailing speech that differs from the norm. Even in our office we have folks who with differing political beliefs. Does it divide us? Nope.

Without apology, I tend to be Constitutional conservative. Our editor, Karen Jorgensen leans left. We have come to the conclusion that we’d rather discuss our differences than run over each other for the sake of winning an argument.

We’ve even welcomed the comments from Larry Dobson, a noted liberal, to comment on a regular basis so you, the reader have thought from the left and the right. (He hasn’t taken me up on the idea.)

Perhaps, we as independent-thinking individuals should do more listening than talking. (In fact, that may be why we have two ears and one mouth.)

When this election is over we hope to return to normalcy, coronavirus or not.

Some argue that if Biden wins we are headed for communism.

Biden supporters have thrown vicious inferences implying there will be a civil war if President Trump is victorious.

I get the impression that we’ve moved to the brink of self-destruction, something that President Abraham Lincoln warned this nation about back in the 1860s.

Rather than destroying this great nation we all call home, let’s agree to listen and talk after we’ve made a concerted effort to hear what our opponents think.

That may be simplistic thinking, but it’s better than the option, which is tearing this beautiful country apart.

Let’s hear from you, the reader. Is America great, or is that just my opinion?