It’s cold at the poles.

We’ve been having this big heat-wave lately. Everybody knows it, everybody sweats their way through it. Beautiful days where you have that nice clean feeling after a shower and there comes a point where you are just a sticky mess. What better time to think about cold weather. All the talk about global warming makes one think about the extremes, the poles. Funny thing is what I want to speak to today is not the north and south pole but the tenets of opposites.

The reason I bring it up is because once again I find I am hearing much dialog being based in and around the extreme edges of political viewpoints. I was bought up with the old saw ‘everything in moderation’ drummed into me. I can’t help but think how continued political dialog in our country focuses more on what our differences are rather than our commonalities.

What does this imply? Are we becoming a nation of people who just have to be right at the sacrifice of everything else? How does embracing that attitude make us more like the people we vilify in this world?

Reminds me of this old Steve Martin bit:

...And I believe in equality, equality for everyone, no matter how stupid they are, or how much better I am than they are...

Consider it something to give you pause. I think it’s a great thing for people to be passionate about their political views and all that. I just can’t say I appreciate anyone who dismisses or denigrates the arguments of people who have an opposing viewpoint.