Let’s Civilly Tolerate One Another – and Stop Stealing Signs
To the Editor:
Typically as we go through life we all form opinions. About most everything. Good and bad, right and wrong, who we will vote for in the next election, all have been arrived at by a myriad of things that shape and form us into the individuals we are at this very moment. Be it genetics, gender, or generation to parents, peers, or personal experiences, over time we become who we are.
That person then has to make their way through life interacting with a host of other persons whose opinions and personalities came about in a similar fashion but where many of the ingredients that go into the mix were different. Hence, a person with a different opinion.
These differences have been with us throughout our history. Be that the history of civilization or of the USA. United was the goal in United States, but that designation has been touch and go since day one. Besides the Old World’s business interests that wanted to establish settlements in what would become The Colonies, many people took refuge here who wanted to escape persecution for their opinions back home. They arrived and formed settlements with others of like opinion and then persecuted those of a different opinion, which oftentimes included the inhabitants who were already here. Not a propitious start.
At some point, the land owning white men, whose opinions mattered the most (in all fairness, this fact was fairly ubiquitous in the Western world at that time) felt strongly enough to throw some perfectly good tea into the drink (but the salty kind) and tell King George they could handle their own affairs better from this side of the Atlantic. Oh, and something about ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’. Now, not all the colonists held the same opinion, but we all know how the story turns out and who won that argument. Opinions, which when different from our own, often turn into disagreements, and sometimes into altercations. These differences have continued throughout our history up to this day.
Our President, and the incumbent candidate for this election, has promoted the saying “Make America Great Again.” Again implies a time before and upon a title that was conferred. I did not realize that a country could achieve a status in perpetuity. Life seems to offer up challenges each and every day and it is up to us as individuals and a country to rise or fall in meeting those challenges. We certainly have had our moments of greatness where (most) people are of the opinion that we as a nation shone. The formation of a democratic government was a remarkable accomplishment, but it, like each and every one of us, is a work in progress. It took us a long time before we even included large segments of the population in one of the core essentials of democracy: the right to vote. And even after being provided the right to vote, the ability to do so has had, and perhaps continues to have, a checkered past in its implementation. Yep, there are a host of things we can improve upon.
I don’t expect for us to achieve unity. Heavens, if a global pandemic nondiscriminating virus can evoke polarity and politicalization, the likelihood of agreement is, well, unlikely. I do however hope that we can, you know, civilly tolerate one another. There are a plethora of examples where tolerance has not ruled the day. Too many to recount. And the result is usually an ugly scene.
Which brings me to why I wrote this “opinion piece.” Would whoever is removing the signs from our block that express the political opinion for the upcoming election of those households, please cease and desist. It is unbecoming and petty of you. Stealing is such an ugly thing to do. It even got ‘Commandment’ status some years ago. And if you took the sign because you could not afford one for your yard, please let us know. I bet we can provide you one. We are generous that way. You will just have to give us your word that is who you will vote for. And by the way, I’m still holding on to the opinion that most of the folks that are voting for your candidate would be of the opinion that what you are doing is wrong.
Kent Babcock
La Grange