Hold the Mustard
“I’ll have a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and ketchup. Hold the mustard.”
Most people approach their news in the same way they would order a burger: they get what they like. They don’t try anything new or different. Or they order something all their friends recommend. Everyone sits together at the same table eating the same burger with the same toppings. No one ever says to their friends, “Did you ever think about getting mustard on your burger?” None of them has ever tried a burger with mustard because mustard tastes … wrong.
At another table, everyone puts mustard on their burgers, but no one adds pickles: “Never tried pickles. Not gonna. Don’t wanna. No one I know eats pickles. Pickles are just wrong. I like mustard. Everyone should have mustard on their burger.”
Hold the Truth
With news, it’s more comfortable to only go to Web sites that say things we already agree with. Or watch the same news channels and commentators all our friends watch. We hate to hear people criticizing and challenging our beliefs. So we order the same point-of-view day after day, and we hear the same ideas over and over, and they become truth to us instead of what they really are: the views of one group.
“Tell me what I want to hear. Hold the truth.”
No, HOLD the Truth
The problem with only listening to ideas we already agree with is that we live in a society with people who do not agree with us. It is hubris to assume we are always right and they are always wrong.
We need to separate truth from opinion, and hold onto the truth. Hold the truth tightly — don’t let it go — and be willing to judge all opinions by that truth. Be willing to consider the possibility that they might have better ideas than we do. Just maybe. Occasionally.
If you believe that both the “left” and the “right” love our country …
… and if you believe that both the “left” and the “right” are trying to make it better …
… and if you are willing to listen to ideas that are different from your own and try to find solutions that will answer the concerns of everyone in a UNITED America …