Understanding Someone Else’s Point of View

 I am back trying to get my unpublished book “The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others” published. I will not give up for right now whatsoever; however, there is enough “pushback” against my concept of a society where we all get along and are nice to each other. Then there are others who motivate me to go on with this project. I am incredibly grateful to them. I hope I can get the good word out there. Some love it; some think it is useless.

One important consideration of life and how we might be more considerate of others is sad these days for me and for others. I am discussing when people do not only NOT value other people’s opinions but can either come back railing against them with mean spirited discourse and in some case, ending a friendship over opposing views. The next several blogs will deal with how we might be a better society if we try to understand views different than our own and enjoy the difference.

As I write this, we Americans are in a heated Presidential Election season. The views, the political platforms and even the candidates are remarkably diverse. In my view, there is nothing wrong with that, but it would be much better if we tried to understand each other particularly when we have quite different views of how our national politics should be run. Recently, I was in an upscale cocktail lounge in a luxury hotel. One bartender told me that in the lounge they discourage people from discussing politics if they can simply because some of those discussions get very heated and can get all too loud and boisterous and can even come to physical blows. How sad.

As a high school social studies teacher, I taught students to develop THEIR OWN political views. I did not lower students’ grades for drafting essays or expressing a political opinion in direct opposition to mine (I must write that I enjoyed when that happened). There are high school teachers and college professors who are “grading down” students for expressing views that directly contradict their own. This is wrong. I never told students exactly what my political views were (and are) or even how I voted in an election. I wanted them to make up their own minds as to where their ideas fit in the political spectrum. Sadly, this is not happening enough these days.

My book is about thoughtfulness for others and openly showing it. Many have told me that this is slipping away in society. I believe that we can truly become a society where we can all think of others as we “go out in the world.”  It must start somewhere.