Can we talk?

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What happened? Please, somebody tell me.

Does anybody remember when we used to talk instead of scream into each others' faces? There was this thing we called "Civil Discourse." It meant that people from different sides of an issue could sit down and talk with each other without leveling vile accusations across the table. We didn't always settle the issue. Sometimes we agreed that we disagreed. Then we shook hands and went our ways.

That was then. Now is another issue altogether. Now, Republicans are all Nazis or Fascists. Democrats are all Communists, or Socialists, or whatever you decide you hate worse. The language of debate has turned inflammatory on a level I don't ever remember seeing before.

Whatever happened to our manners?  When I was young, we addressed each other using "Sir" and Ma'am." We spoke politely when we differed. Now, stereotypes and labels have replaced propriety and common manners. We rush to judge, and we ALL do it. Don't tell me you don't. I speak to everybody involved in the debate here. And wherever you point that finger, remember three more are pointing right back at you.

When was the last time you began a statement with "X just wants to...." or "Y just thinks that..."? The Left just want Big Brother. They want to spend, spend, spend the United States into oblivion, declare an emergency and declare a dictatorship so they can put everybody on a government program. The Right want to throw Grandma off a cliff. They want poor people to all become sick and die. They all want dirty air and dirty water. They want tax breaks only for rich people while struggling families have to pay more. GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

Come on, people. We're all so busy telling each other what they want, nobody is taking the time anymore to stop and ask, "Why would anyone in their right mind want THAT?" Can we actually ask what the other side wants anymore?

Now, I know about Talk Radio. I also know about the press and its propaganda. I actually had a class on how to spot it, if you want to believe that. And folks, we are spending a whole lot of time getting led around by our noses. Everybody is so busy blaming the other side anymore, they can't see that they themselves are guilty of the same things.

I know a lot is at stake when you're a free country in crisis during an election year. I'm free with my criticism toward both sides of the debate. I agree with one thing our current president says: "What we have are two different directions the country can go in." Then I have to bite my tongue when he goes off on an angry rant about how I want to murder poor people in their sleep and eat babies because I don't think my government has the common sense to run a lemonade stand, let alone control a massive health care bureaucracy that introduces nearly a hundred new agencies and programs.

Now, I'm going to finish up. And I'm going to welcome comments. But people, you better keep this discussion civil because I will not put up with inflammatory rhetoric on my blog. We are not the WWE, we are free Americans (And my welcome guests from other countries, God Bless you) with rights to free speech, and also the responsibility to tell truth. And aside from a handful of us here, I know most of us are not telepaths or empaths. Maybe a few sociaopaths and psychopaths, but so far as I know, nobody here can read anyone else's mind from a thousand miles away. Even if you can, don't try.

So instead of reading each others' minds, and without name-calling or accusations,

Can we just talk?