(Originally published in the Lincoln News Messenger)
Although some schools still have speech classes in their curriculum listen skills are not taught but are at least as important. Society at large also takes listening for granted.
I once attended a seminar on communication. One hundred of us rate our listening skills as compared to our significant other. Strangely, 95 percent of us graded ourselves as a better listener than our partner.
More strangely, the facilitator said she got the same result at all her communication seminars. I need not tell you that this indicated that we all think we listen well, but do not.
But we must learn to listen to our liberal and conservative neighbors even when the message is strident to our ears. Each point of view has survived because each give value to their societies. One counterbalances the other.
For instance, liberals seek change while conservatives lean on tradition. Sometimes change is appropriate, sometimes it is not. Societies survive best when both views are healthy and respected so the better approach (or a smart mixture of the two—dare I say compromise) in a particular situation can be chosen.
At times we lurch like lummoxes in this balancing act. We wish the elephant would get off our back so we could move with impunity or wonder why the donkey bucks so foolishly.
But in this political year, when attack and exaggeration are the coinage, please do yourself, your neighbor, and your country a favor. Listen.
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