LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Learning to talk and to listen are the key to recovering our civility.

Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash

Two Good Women Are Dead

One of humanity’s most basic drives is the desire to live in safety, where we can love and be loved. The more we see each other for who we are, the more love wins. But today we don’t see each other at all — public dialogue has decayed from conversation to prolonged disagreement to disparagement. To make matters worse, we’re constantly assaulted with disinformation that becomes more provocative and polarizing every day, leaving everybody convinced their way of life is under attack.

As a result, two starkly different worldviews have evolved in groups we’ll call the Babbitts and the Goods. One group supports societal norms, institutions, and the Constitution; the other group has been seduced into dehumanizing the former group and permitting attacks on them. They cheer the destruction of institutions and of the Constitution itself because they no longer believe in either.

How do you know you’re on the wrong side? When you doubt your neighbor because of what you’ve read on the internet, you’ve probably been deceived. When you build exceptions into your moral or religious code because “their” politics don’t match yours, you’ve been led astray. When you’ve dehumanized an entire group as unworthy of compassion, you’ve given in to fear and are on the wrong side.

Turn off that cable news alert and lock your smart phone. Talk (and really listen!) to the people around you. See the good in your neighbor before you accept manufactured outrage from the internet. Be kind to the stranger and the person you don’t understand. Choose to see “the others” you haven’t met as if they are very much like you because they really are very much like you.

Time has run out for Ashli Babbett and Renee Good. If we don’t promptly resume talking, listening, and seeing each other for who we really are, it will run out on us.

Michael Parkyn lives in Stafford

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