working together...

i do have to say i am starting to worry over the polarization of this country. i have to say i have a very hard time listening to either extreme.
i can't say i am much better, i admit i get my information from NPR, and the BBC, but tonight i was flipping through the channels and heard a very opinionated political commentator with a new book on CSPAN, and my tolerance disappeared. i am ashamed to say i wanted to throw the remote through the TV. i wanted to hear what this person had to say. i don't know if it was what was said, or if it was that this person was only fueling the fire of polarization, intolerance, and superiority. As someone who would call them self a Christian i found the words spoken contrary to what Christ spoke.

What i find so disheartening is that we cannot respectfully disagree in this country. It feels like our attitude is it's my way, and you are stupid, wrong, and a sorry excuse for a human being. Maybe that's why i got/get so frustrated.

What i find funny in some way is that we think as Americans we can be so self-absorbed and believe we have all the answers. Last summer the pastor of the church i visited in Tanzania had said they do not see other religions as the enemy, they unite together to fight a common enemy- not people, but AIDS. It may not cure those affected, but it will change their lives. Those affected with HIV would feel love, and hope.

i wonder what it would look like if we stopped looking at each other as the enemy and spent the energy fighting something instead of someone we wouldn't be so intolerant and angry. Maybe if we heard what the other said.

maybe i'm just an idealist.

Or maybe i am so non-confrontational that i get really upset by disagreements- which i know is true, and i'm okay with it. When i was in elementary school my first grade teacher told my mom she thought i would grow up to be a UN peace keeper- because i when my friends would fight at recess i would be the one to bring them together...