All year, every year there are key political events that trigger challenging and engaging discussions/debates at group or individual levels – these key events range from elections, state of the union address (or commonwealth), tax seasons, national and local level budget/legislative/governance considerations, and SCOTUS judges/cases (just to name a few).
These discussions/debates can easily become contentious or provocative – if we find ourselves in challenging situations, perhaps we could consider some of the following so we can embrace engaging and avoid challenging:
Is there real value in our position? We all get to decide for ourselves what holds value in our lives, which often comes out in these exchanges.
Are we considering the fullness of a topic? There are always multiple sides of all situations – have we done our due diligence to clearly see multiple sides of the topic?
Is our position beneficial to an isolated group? This is not wrong, but it’s perceptive to show some empathy and acknowledge the disparity.
Is our position a truth – a falsehood – or maybe a half truth? Truths often require context, completeness, or chronological clarity to support our trustworthiness.
Finally, is our position an authentic refection of what we hope the world sees in us? Which (oddly enough) seldom has anything to do with politics.
Let our yes be yes, and our no be no.
Kevin's Thoughts 