The Rules for (Political) Discourse ...

I believe the world would be better if we could argue and debate without it turning into mutual loathing. I truly believe that if we could step back and allow ourselves to be moved sometimes –

Well toward this end these are the rules I’ve laid out for myself – and of course I won’t be perfect but I am going to try.

1. Do not betray your ethics. You know it may sound sappy but I believe in all of the love one another stuff. I’m trying. Evaluate what you say and do against that ethic. Try to be a decent human being.
2. Try not to bait people and try not to take the bait.
3. Try to stick to issues – try to lay out positions cleanly, without getting personal.
4. Let people you don’t agree with have room to speak. (I won’t defriend you for differing views but I will for hate speech.)
5. Don’t call people, known or unknown, what my mother would have called “ugly names”.
6. Try to find the overlaps. Seriously – TRY TO FIND THE OVERLAPS.
7. I don’t have to have the last word.
8. Let go of anger – it only closes us off from one another.
9. Work in the garden, read a book, run, walk, watch the sunset – make art – dwell on what you love - see things for what they are.
10. Life – the world – is an aggregate – do your best to make your part of it kind.

Thank you LeBron #Believeland #AllIn

Way to shift the conversation! Props!

Image from NBA - see link below

With poetry – on the field of play, against expectations – triumphant.
#ALLIN not just for now – All In – a rallying cry – a political philosophy – a future.

LeBron you really are beautiful – you made a believer out of me – you stayed the course – you fucking owned it – and all the while a class act.

We can feel the love you have for this place, it’s infectious. Your faith, your love, your tremendous will from since you were a teenager – in this moment, we get it, we understand it’s all possible, not just today but - everyday.

LeBron – a young man from Akron – a passion of a dream – There are other dreams, beautiful dreams, of fulfilling other destinies, in each of us, each of us to our gifts. #Believeland #Cleveland #AllIn

New York Times LeBron James 2016 NBA Finals

Image source: www.nba.com - Cavaliers

a starting place - (the reboot)

Marina Ginesta Spanish Civil War

Dean James Ryan - Havard Education

I spend a lot of time thinking about: who “we” say “we” are and are we really who “we” say we are? I think about how we listen to or how we hear such inspirational speeches as the one posted above. How well do we carry their messages? I wonder, as individuals, what is the slippage between who we present ourselves as and who we really, consistently, are?

How did we get here?
What are and what should be our goals?
How does our reality compare to the things we say we strive for?
What is the nature of justice?
How do we actually address gulfs between us?
How do we cultivate the will to do these things?