“We should learn to listen to each other.”

I,

Crushed by our recent and very public political defeat, it is hard to
listen to any other arguments about where our country should go. Yet, we must. It
is not enough that our ideas on the subject seem on the floor, in this moment,
and we have experienced a necessary failure. It does not all end there. We must
still live up to the creed we started with: to be part of building a country
that works for everyone. In the more nut and bolts sense, a country cannot work
for everyone. There are differing agendas across board. We were speaking of fairness,
of balance, of space for mobility and of the end of power structures that
exclude and repress and leave little or nothing for the majority it purports to
hold power for.  Yes, I mean we strive
for the impossible stuff.

We believe in a reality other than what can be perceived, in a light in
the universe that takes us from the cruel steps of mere existence into the more
radiant charms of purpose and evolution. We believe things can get better. We believe
poverty is not destiny and suffering is not immutable. We will always rage
against a thoughtless and heartless machine.

Yet, we are not the only ones who believe in those things. We are
blighted by lust and ambition and greed and so are the others. The things we
hate in our so-called opposition are the things we find first in ourselves and
so we know them well. We must now learn to listen to each other.

This listening must come in two places: the first is to understand and
the second is to respond. In the first we grant that we do not know everything
and others might have better ideas and approaches. In the second we stand for those
things that are central to our pursuit by responding appropriately to the
things that seek to consume them. We wrestle against off principles not off
people. In the larger and more vital sense we are all off. We all need that
eternal light switch turned on.